Return from Where?
by jdog16
Summary: Nefarious has returned, and he has a notsonew plan to finish! On hiatus for an unknown length of time.
1. Chapter 1

DisclaimerI do** NOT **own Ratchet, Clank, or any other characters or places from the games yada yada yada…

Anyway, here's Chapter 1.

* * *

Somewhere out in space on some random asteroid…

"Ugh… how long have we been on this blasted asteroid, Lawrence?" whined Nefarious, tossing another piece of rock at a distant spot of light, which, it seemed, had gotten larger since the last time he looked at it.

"I don't know, sir, I didn't know ten minutes ago, I don't know now, and I won't know in the next ten minutes."

"Then just guess!" demanded Nefarious.

"Well, I'd say about two years, give or take."

"TWO YEARS? We could have been ruling a galaxy of robots by now!" and at that, Nefarious went on his daily rant about hating Qwark, Ratchet and all the rest.

Finally finished throwing his fit, Nefarious walked over to Lawrence and smacked him in the back of the head.

"Lawrence!" shouted Nefarious, "Are you positive th-,"

"There is no reason to yell sir, I'm right in front of you," interrupted Lawrence.

"Nevermind that! Are you positive that we are not in range of ANY planet?"

"Quite positive, sir," replied Lawrence. "The only thing we are in range of is that comet over there."

"Dra-, wait, what comet?'

And right on cue, a comet the size of a Tyrranoid drop ship slammed right into Nefarious' back, taking him with it. Nefarious promptly grabbed his butler by the arm in an effort to escape, but he only succeeded in yanking Lawrence along with him.

"LAWWWW"-kkckkkkkchhhhchhhhh-

"But Lance, I can't marry you!'

"But why Janet, Why?'

"Because I already--THUNK—"RREEENCCEEE!"

A meteor had hit Nefarious in the head.

"Oh, I wanted to know how it ended,"

Nefarious paid him no attention. "Why didn't you tell me about this before!"

"Because, sir, you didn't ask," replied Lawrence.

* * *

After about two weeks of hurtling through deep space at break-neck speeds, a device on Lawrence's arm began to beep.

"Sir, it appears that we are in range of a planet," he said "I don't know what the name of the planet is, but I _can_ tell that it is a large planet, mostly desert."

"I don't care if it was the hottest planet in the entire galaxy, just get us off this thing!" yelled the doctor, as the ice crystals stuck in his rear were getting rather uncomfortable.

"Very well, sir," sighed Lawrence, as he activated the teleporter.

They vanished in a flash of light, and reappeared on an arid plateau, or

rather, Lawrence appeared on the edge of the plateau, and Nefarious found himself falling down a sheer cliff. It took him a good 3 seconds to realize this.

"Wait, wha? LAWWREENCE!"

"Oh dear, I _really_ need to choose my location more carefully next time."

Finally through screaming, Nefarious found enough sense to dig his claws into the rocky side of the cliff and prevent him self from becoming buried in the sand below.

"What did you do this time, Lawrence?" exclaimed the doctor.

"I'm terribly sorry, sir, but you didn't specify a destination. I thought that you would have learned your lesson the first time. Random teleportation has consequences, sir."

Nefarious pulled himself up to the ledge and surveyed the surrounding area, but he couldn't see anything over the tall sand dunes about a mile out in every direction. The dunes seemed artificial.

"Come on Lawrence," he growled, "let's get a better look at this place. Maybe we'll be able to find out where in the galaxy we are. I can't finish my evil plan if I'm stuck in this desert for the rest of eternity!"

"Which evil plan, sir? The one with that rainbow afro-lizer machine?"

"No."

"The one where you try to bore your enemies to death with elevator music?

"No!"

"The one that you-"

"NO, Lawrence! The one where I rule an entire Galaxy of robots! Now hurry up! The sooner we find out where we are, the sooner I can complete my insidious plot! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Are we going to have to rebuild that Biobliterator again, sir?" asked Lawrence, nearly shuddering at the idea of putting that huge eyesore back together.

"No, Lawrence," he replied, "I have a better idea. Much more subtle, but much, MUCH more satisfying. This time, the squishies will have no idea what is happening to them!"

* * *

Well, I'd say that's a nice cliffhanger huh? The next chapter should have more action in it. Anyway, read and reply. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: You know the drill; I don't own any un-original content.

With that said, here's Chapter 2.

* * *

"Get down!" shouted Ratchet over the roaring explosions of the battlefield as a Tyrranoid Death Walker fired three crimson energy blasts at his entrenched position.

The warning came much too late for a trio of Galactic Rangers; the searing beams tore completely through their metal bodies, and they fell into a heap of charred metal and melted plastic, still crackling with electricity.

"Son of a…," began Ratchet, glaring at the hunk of twisted metal that was once three Galactic Rangers, but he was cut short when he was forced to dodge a beam from the same Death Walker. However, the weapon caught him in the shoulder and he was knocked five feet backwards. Luckily, his Aegis Mark V armor lived up to its reputation, angling the shoulder plate and deflecting the beam, though, due to the intense heat, he was sure that he had at least suffered a 1st degree burn.

"Alright, it's payback time,' said Ratchet, shouldering his Multi-Disk Gun with a grin.

He pointed it at the offending vehicle, locked on, and pulled the trigger.

The razor-sharp carbonox blade flew from the weapon with enough recoil to make him take a step back, mostly due to its sheer size. It was well worth it though, as the shot hit its mark, slicing the legs off of the Death Walker and splitting in two. These proceeded to wreak havoc among every Tyrranoid within twenty feet of the intended target.

The enemy began to retreat through a nearby canyon.

"Trooper!" said Ratchet, addressing a nearby Ranger, "Is there a Hover ship nearby? I've got a plan."

"Yes sir, it's right over there," replied the Ranger, pointing at their base camp.

Ratchet hurried over to the camp, and found the Hovership on a nearby landing pad.

"We received your request, Sarge, the Hovership is fueled, armed, and ready to fly," said a Ranger who had just finished loading missiles into the weapon pods.

"Good job. Take a squadron of Rangers and pursue the Tyrranoids through the canyon. I'll take the Hovership, fly to the other side, and ambush them, a basic pincer maneuver. Once we get rid of them, it should be much easier to take their base."

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Good, now get moving," said Ratchet while climbing into the pilot seat of the aircraft.

Ratchet took the ship over the plateau, and to the other side of the canyon, positioning it behind a rock face to avoid detection. After ten minutes of waiting, several red dots appeared on his radar.

Ratchet pulled the ship out of its hiding spot and began to open fire.

The fleeing Tyrranoids skidded to a halt upon seeing the vehicle blocking

their path of escape. The ones that were brave, or foolish, enough to do so, opened fire and were the first to be blown into tiny robotic fritters. The rest turned tail and ran, only to be met by Galactic Ranger fire.

The fight was over in minutes, ending with the complete destruction of the Tyrranoid troops.

The Hovership was out of ammo, so Ratchet landed it and hopped out, as there was no use in attacking the enemy base with it anymore.

Ratchet walked over to the Rangers. "How many casualties did we take?" he asked the lead Ranger.

"Just three, sir, one killed, two damaged."

"Alright," replied Ratchet, "We should make an assault on their main base now, before they can reinforce it."

"Yes sir!" the Ranger turned to the rest of his squad. "Listen up, people! This is the final assault! When we win this, our job on this planet will be finished!" he said, careful to use the word 'when' instead of 'if'.

The Rangers took up support positions behind the rocks around the base, once again leaving Ratchet to finish the job. Rolling his eyes at this thought, he pulled out his wrench and prepared for the wave of small Tyrranoids that came every time that he had attacked a Tyrranoid base in the past.

Sure enough, about twelve one-eyed Tyrranoids teleported to the site in a last-ditch defense. Ratchet braced himself for the fight. Ratchet dispatched most of them easily, but one managed to bite him in the leg; hard. Grimacing from the pain, he hit his attacker three times in the head with the wrench, each strike reverberating with the sound of crunching metal, before it let go and stopped moving. Ratchet examined the wound on his leg; the bite had penetrated through his fur, skin, and muscle.

"_Yep, I'm gonna be feeling this tomorrow," _he thought.

Doing his best to ignore his injury, he refocused his mind on the situation. All he had to do was destroy the gattling turrets and the battle would be won.

"You alright, sir?" one of the Ranger spoke up.

Ratchet turned to face him, "Yeah, I'll be fine," he replied, pulling out his Nitro Eruptor.

"Ok, then," said the Ranger. He could have sworn that he heard the Ranger whisper, "Whew, okay he doesn't need any help," to the others, accompanied by a sigh of relief by the others.

Ratchet closed in on the turrets and the shields around then deactivated. The turrets began to fire.

Just in time, Ratchet activated his Shield Charger and fired two grenades at the turrets, which disappeared in the explosions. When the dust settled, the enemy base lay in ruins, and a cheer rose from the ranks of the Galactic Rangers.

Ratchet contacted the Phoenix.

"Ratchet calling Sasha," he said through the com.

The captain of the Phoenix appeared on screen. "Sasha here, go ahead Ratchet," she said.

"We won the battle, Sasha," he said, "The last remaining Tyrranoid forces on Aridia have been defeated."

* * *

And that's Chapter two. Hope that was enough action for one chapter. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** You get it by now, right?

Chapter 3

Ratchet limped into the bulky Ranger dropship sent to dust him and his troops off. Having several deep wounds on his calf from the Tyhrranoid's teeth really didn't help him climb the steep ramp to the ship's seats, but he managed to make his way to a bench on the left side of the ship.

He plopped tiredly into the seat, just now registering the burn on his shoulder. He removed the shoulder plate and examined it for a minute. The area was rather tender and had begun to blister in small patches, but he would otherwise be fine. The bite, however, would require some Nanotech in order to be repaired.

He slumped in his chair slightly, exhaling a deep breath. He may have beaten Dr. Nefarious, but, until now, Tyhrranoid attacks had still plagued the system. After dozens of battles on the planets of Kerwan and Rilgar, the enemy had retreated to their main encampment on Aridia, and with their defeat there, the system was finally free of its unwelcome guests.

Ratchet closed his eyes and tuned out the loud ruckus made by the Galactic Rangers as they whooped, hollered, and congratulated each other. A few sitting near him slapped him on the shoulder and thanked him for his help.

"_That's an understatement," _he thoughtbut he was tired enough not to care. He couldn't wait to get back to the Phoenix and get his first real rest in weeks.

* * *

After about an hour of low-speed space travel, the Phoenix came into view through the small circular ports of the dropship. Ratchet quickly spotted it and got a sudden look of anticipation on his face.

The Ranger to his left noticed this and said, "Heh, expecting a gift from a certain someone, sir?"

Ratchet turned and glared at him.

"…What?" the Ranger said, shrugging what passed as his shoulders.

Ratchet rolled his eyes and resumed looking through the window, this time at nothing in particular. News had quickly spread that Ratchet and Sasha were dating, and the Rangers still poked fun at him for it every once in a while, though he really didn't mind.

They closed the rest of the distance to the Phoenix and a mechanical voice over the ship's intercom said, "Preparing to dock, docking…" there was a slightly audible hiss as the Phoenix's outer docking chamber pressurized, "Docking complete," finished the voice.

The hatch opened and Ratchet and the Rangers filed out. The robotic troops went below decks for routine matenence and post-battle repairs, and Ratchet left for the medical supply room. Once there, he used some pain-relieving salve for his shoulder burn and applied a generous amount of Nanotech to his leg wound. He winced as the tiny machines disinfected, cleaned, and repaired the injury.

"_I wonder why I didn't see anyone on deck,"_ he wondered, and found the answer to his question when he glanced at the clock, which read 11:54.

"_Huh, no wonder. Everyone's off duty by now."_

He then left for his room, wanting to play on his VG9000 for a while before going to bed. To his surprise, Sasha, Skidd, and Clank (who had needed repairs after a previous battle) were already on his VG9000, playing a versus game of Battle Craft 2, and, apparently Skidd, judging by his loud, obnoxious gloating, was winning.

They hadn't noticed him come in, which wasn't surprising, due to the fact that the volume of the Holovid wad been turned up pretty loud.

"Perfect," he whispered to himself. He then proceeded to sneak up on them, drew in a deep breath, and quickly shouted:

"CAN I PLAY!"

Everyone jumped out of surprise: Clank drew his arms, legs, and head into his body like a turtle; Skidd yelled and dove forward onto the table, knocking several glasses and candy wrappers onto the floor; Sasha, who had been leaning on the sofa's armrest, let out a squeal and jumped backward, toppling over the armrest and onto the floor.

"You guys need to stay more alert. I'd hate to imagine what would have happened if the Phoenix was attacked while I was gone!" Ratchet laughed.

Sasha quickly stood upright and, not realizing who had frightened her, turned to him with an angry look. She quickly saw who it was, though, and her expression turned to the opposite. She ran up to Ratchet and hugged him tightly.

"You're back! Are you alright?" she said, her voice an amalgamation of joy and concern. She had always worried for his safety when he went on his missions, not that she thought that he couldn't handle himself, but every time he left for battle, she knew, in the back of her mind, that there was a chance that he would not come back alive.

"Yeah, don't worry about me, I'm fine," he said, wrapping his arms around her.

After about thirty seconds, they released each other and Sasha regained her normal business-like composure.

"So then, ahem, your mission was a success then?" she said, blushing slightly under her fur.

"Yes ma'am," he replied, saluting, "All Tyhrranoid outposts on Aridia have been destroyed."

Clank finally emerged from his body, looking slightly annoyed at Ratchet's unexpected entrance, but glad to see him nonetheless.

"It is good to see you Ratchet," he said, "I trust your mission went well?"

"Yeah, of course it would have been easier if you hadn't gotten your processor damaged three days ago, but there weren't too many problems."

"Good to hear. Anyway, my power cell needs recharging. I am going to shut down for the night."

"Alright," said Ratchet, "See you in the morning." And with that, Clank walked over to his recharging station and went to 'sleep'.

Ratchet and Sasha walked over to and sat down next to each other on the couch. Ratchet snickered at Skidd, who was still shaking on the table; since he had covered his ears, he hadn't heard anything that they had said.

Ratchet reached over and pulled Skidd's left hand away from his ear and said, "You can get up now, Skidd, nothing to be afraid of," still laughing slightly.

"Wh-? Oh, hey Ratchet, what's up? Heard you kicked some serious Tyhrranoid butt on Aridia, huh? Anyway, I'm a bit high-strung at the moment. I'm gonna go turn in for the night. Later."

"Good night," Ratchet and Sash said together.

After Skidd had left, Sasha turned to Ratchet. "So, you going to tell me what happened down there, or what?" she said with a small grin.

Ratchet yawned and said, "You're gonna have to wait until tomorrow. I'm too tired to tell the story right now."

"Alright. Goodnight Ratchet," she said, closing her eyes and leaning on his shoulder.

"Goodnight Sasha," and they slept soundly through the night,

So soundly, in fact, that they didn't hear the grinding sounds coming from the cargo hold.

* * *

Aha, weren't expecting that now, were ya? Sorry if this is a little too drawn out for you. By the way, I changed my profile so I now accept anonymous reviews. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer**: It's been said.

Make sure to leave reviews, people! Don't be lazy!

In response to Mr. D's review, yes, you will find out what it is (or at least you should figure it out).

Anyway here's Chapter 4.

* * *

Lawrence and Dr. Nefarious trudged through the desert's blazing hot sands, keeping an eye out for any type of civilization that could possibly exist in this desolate place. 

After about three hours of aimless wandering across the dusty plateau, Lawrence tapped the doctor, who had been walking in a sort of half-trance for about an hour now, on the shoulder, and, as per usual, Nefarious overreacted.

"Ahh!" he yelled, jumping back, "I _told_ you not to surprise me, Lawrence!"

"I'm sorry sir, but, if you'll look over there, it appears that we have come across an old military outpost," he said, jabbing his thumb in the outpost's direction.

Nefarious looked excitedly in the direction that Lawrence indicated and saw a collection of six small, rectangular structures, surrounded by a chain-link fence with barbed wire and a sigh that read, "Weapons Development Outpost 0300. No one appeared to be standing guard.

"Finally, a place to stop and clean this blasted dirt out of my joints! Especially my jaw; it would have clamped shut long ago if I hadn't had that extra few drops of oil." he exclaimed; Lawrence looked disappointed. "And an abandoned military base! How much luckier can we get!"

"It's not abandoned, sir."

"What are you talking about? How can you tell?"

"Check the parking lot."

Sure enough, several vehicles were parked to the right of the complex.

"Oh. Well then we'll have to MAKE it abandoned then, won't we Lawrence?" He looked toward the lightly guarded facility. "Time for some fun," he said with a grin.

* * *

About twenty minutes later, every researcher and the few outpost guards lay asphyxiated on the meeting room floor of Module 05 of Weapons Development Outpost 0300, killed during a short briefing. During this time, Nefarious had found the security room in Module 01, hacking the security system and locking the doors to Module 05. Searching the rest of the base, he also found the air processing chamber, which scrubbed the atmosphere of poisonous fumes, the results of failed experiments and frequent weapons testing. He simply bypassed the chamber's failsafe, deactivated it, and watched with sadistic glee as the organics in the meeting room slowly choked to their deaths. Some attempted to open the door, but he simply laughed at their futile struggles. 

After the guards had been dealt with, he turned to the Holocompuer screen in front of him.

"Now, let's take a look at what these puny beings were working on."

After file minutes of searching through documents, memos, and some 'personal' files, he found something that caught his interest.

"Ooh. Lawrence! Come have a look at this!"

"What did you find this time, sir?" asked Lawrence, "More downloaded videos from that one si-,"

"NO, Lawrence!"

"Then what did you fid, sir?"

The doctor grinned. "I found some new equipment that may be of use to us. Take a look."

On the screen were two objects, one a robot with six spider-like legs with integrated Gravity Boot technology and four many fingered hands capable of heavy lifting and delicate manipulation if objects, and the other a drop pod equipped with a large drill.

"And just what do you intend to do with them?" asked Lawrence.

Nefarious explained.

"Oh my, sir," said Lawrence, "For once, you came up with a good idea."

"Yes, it is a good idea, isn't it?" he said, oblivious to the insult.

"It does seem a little off track, though. What do they have to do with you ruling the galaxy?"

"They'll get in the way if I don't put and end to them now!" exclaimed Nefarious. "After their dealt with, we will return to my top secret facility on Daxx to finish my master plan!"

"You mean the one in Super Villain Weekly?"

"Yes, that one. Now find that ship's location while I get this drone and program it for the task."

"Right away, sir," replied Lawrence.

* * *

Nefarious rooted trough the base, searching for the drone and the pod. He found the robot in the second structure he searched, quickly uploading his plan onto a disk and inserting it into the robot's drive, but the pod was nowhere to be found. 

"If it's not in the outpost, THEN WHERE IS IT!" he yelled to himself, standing just outside Module 06.

His question was answered immediately when he spotted the craft on a launch pad. He ran over to check its status.

As luck would have it, it was prepped for launch.

"Good," he said, rubbing his metal hands together.

Suddenly, Lawrence came running over, a compact disk in hand.

"Here you are, sir," he said, handing over the disk.

"Excellent work, Lawrence," he said, inserting the disk into the drone's drive, and placing the drone into the pod.

They then stood in a nearby shelter, and ignited the craft's engines by remote, watching it disappear into the sky.

"Come on, Lawrence; let's take on of these ships to Daxx. I don't want to waste anymore time on this forsaken mud ball."

* * *

That's Ch. 4. Remember to review. Make sure to be patient for the next one, since school is starting here and I'm having some writer's block. 

Oh, and kudos to Mr. D for being the first to reply to the first three chapters!


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** blah blah blah

Chapter 5

* * *

Prototype demolitions drone 081 activated in transit to its pre-programmed target. Its vessel, also a prototype, began to near the target, a lone starship in high orbit around the planet Aridia. Drone 081 ran a diagnostic on itself and its transport vessel: the pod's radar absorption field was active, an both were functioning at optimal efficiency and power. This was crucial to its mission, as it took a lot of power to arm the explosive charge that hung from its back.

Moments later, a small red light on the holoscreen lit up, indicating the beginning of the pod's infiltration procedures. The small transport found the thinnest spot in the ship's hull and began to bore through with a metallic grinding sound.

After two minutes, the drill penetrated completely through the ship's armor, forming a seal around the hole to prevent explosive decompression, and the demolition drone stepped out. The pod had apparently dropped it in the cargo hold. It would need to make its way to the engine room and plant the charge to accomplish its prime directive.

The robot made its way through the winding maintenance tunnels, avoiding the odd Ranger patrol by taking advantage of its integrated Gravity Boot technology, and finally found its way to the engine room.

Aside from the hangar, the engine room was the largest room on the entire starship. Two huge fusion generators powered everything on the ship, from the gravity warping engines to the smallest kitchen appliance. Everything running on the power that they generated made them the perfect target.

The drone placed its fingers on the activation slots of the detonator, activating the device, and its power core drained to only 1, just enough time to set the charge. With its last watt of power, it set the charge for 5 minutes, placed it on the generators, and deactivated.

* * *

"_Ahh… this is SO much better than those uncomfortable cots," _Ratchet thought unconsciously, referring to what he slept on during his missions. _"Nothin' can beat the comforts of ho-,"_

**KA-BOOM**

An enormous explosion rocked the ship, violently jerking Ratchet and Sasha out of their sleep and throwing them unceremoniously off of the couch and into a heap on the floor. Several thuds coming from the dorm rooms indicated that the rest of the Q-Force had suffered the same thing.

They untangled themselves and stood bolt upright.

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" Ratchet had to yell over the many alarms and sirens that want off simultaneously.

Sahsa ran over to a nearby computer console an typed franticly "There's been an explosion in the engine room!" she shouted over the commotion, "The generators have suffered severe damage. They could go critical at any second! And if were still on the ship when they do…," she stopped. They both knew how the sentence ended.

Moments later, the rest of the Q-Force showed up in their night clothes.

"Vaht is going on? Vaht's with all ze noise!" shouted Helga angrily, shaking her fist.

"There's no time to explain! We have to get off the ship!" He turned to Sasha, "We can't all fit in my ship; are there any Ranger dropships in the docking bay?"

"I think so," she checked the ship's logs, "yes there is, but there's also a fire in hall leading to the bay."

Ratchet strapped the still-charging Clank to his back. "No problem," he said, picking up his Liquid Nitrogen Gun and motioning them to follow him.

* * *

They made their way through the cavernous halls of the dying starship, dodging small explosions and falling debris. They soon reached the door to the docking bay, which was glowing red with heat.

"Stand back!" warned Ratchet; they did so. He squeezed the trigger and the sub-zero liquid sprayed out, coating and freezing it.

Ratchet then pulled out his wrench and shattered the frozen door with three well-placed Hyper Strikes.

The wave of heat that greeted him was intense enough to force him to his knees. With effort, he hefted his Liquid Nitrogen Gun and sprayed as much of the liquid as he could into the blazing inferno that blocked their way to escape. By the time the fire was out, the weapon's ammo was depleted.

"Come on! We've got to keep moving!" he said to the others, still panting from the heat.

Finally, they came to the first welcome sight since this whole disaster had begun: a Galactic Ranger dropship. They ran over and piled into it, Ratchet taking the pilot's seat. The Phoenix was shaking more violently than ever.

"Hang on, everyone!"

He fired the ship's missiles at the outer bay door, blowing a hole in it large enough for the unwieldy ship to squeeze through. With a little scraping, the ship cleared the Phoenix and took off at maximum speed.

Suddenly, an intensely white light poured through the dropship's ports. White-hot debris began to fly by them, some impacting on the ship. One particularly large piece of debis slammed into the rear of the ship, jarring it hard enough to make Ratchet slam his head into the control console, knocking him unconscious.

* * *

There ya go, Chapter 5. MAKE SURE TO REVIEW! 


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** You know what? After this, no more disclaimers. I mean, you _must _havegotten the picture by now, right?

Now to respond to my Reviews.

**To Mr. D**: You'll find out

**To RWD**: Personally, I thought that the second chappie was more intense, but thanx.

**To Sandy87**: Yea, I know that the last few chapters were a little light on the details. Oh, and by the way, please do hurry up on 'Return'. Now were even.

**To Jay Winters**: Thanx for the luck. Also, I don't remember mentioning anyone dying.

Anyway, to Chapter 6!

* * *

Ratchet's head was swimming through the darkness.

"_What happened?" _he thought, _"Where am I? Am I dead? Where are the others?"_

Blurry shapes materialized in front of him, seemingly out of nowhere, slowly focusing into coherent images. An ambient glow surrounded the area, intensifying.

When the area came into focus, it was as if Hell had been unleashed. The surrounding structures and trees were all burning, seemingly alight with perpetual flame. Metal and stone debris laid scattered everywhere, some half buried in the scorched earth upon which he looked.

It was then that he noticed five humanoid figures lying on the ground, unmoving.

Ratchet automatically, slowly, made his way to the nearest figure. It was laying on its front, about his size, and he noticed a short tail. He then extended a shaking hand, and, slowly, turned it over.

He let out an ear-splitting scream.

* * *

Ratchet jerked upright out of his nightmare in a cold sweat, still in shock at the horrifying scene, but after several quick glances, he lay back down, letting out a sigh of relief.

The hellish land of the dreamscape had disappeared, replaced instead by the interior of their commandeered dropship.

Hurried footsteps began to approach, and a very welcome face appeared in the doorway. Sasha quickly climbed the ramp. Her arm was in a bloody sling, and she walked with a slight limp, but the joyful look on her face said that she had other things on her mind.

She walked over to and stood over him, smiling warmly.

"Have a good sleep?" she asked.

"If you consider unconsciousness due to head trauma a good sleep, then yes," replied Ratchet, grinning at the last two words. "What hit us?"

"Some debris from the Phoenix. Luckily, _most_ of us remembered to strap ourselves in," she said with a small grin.

"Oh… right," he said, slightly embarrassed.

"Can you stand?"

"I think so," he started to get off of the cot he was laying on, but a wash of pain swept through his cranium, his vision blurred, and he quickly sat back down.

"Ratchet!" said Sasha, concerned, "What's wrong? Are you all right?"

Ratchet's vision cleared. "Yeah, I'm fine. It was just head rush."

Ratchet stepped out of the ship with Sasha beside him, surveying his surroundings; the place was reminiscent of Florana, but the foliage was much thicker, darker. The dropship lay half-buried in the ground in a small clearing.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"I don't really know. After we discovered you unconscious in the cockpit, we put you in the back with the others. By the time I got to the controls, this planet had caught us in its gravity, and we were forced to make an emergency landing," she said, "The thing is, this planet isn't on any of our galactic maps, so we can't call for help."

"Can the ship be repaired?' asked Ratchet hopefully.

"I'm sure I could fix it, that is, with a little patience," Al said, poking his head out from behind the ship. "Repairing a quantum power matrix is delicate business, and I can't be rushed, otherwise we'd all be incinerated at the moment of ignition."

"Nice to see you too," said Ratchet. "Were's everyone else?"

"Qwark and Helga went to go look for food, and Skidd is out looking for firewood."

"What about Clank?"

"He's still recharging in the ship. Don't worry, he hasn't been damaged."

"Well that's good to know," said Ratchet, relieved.

* * *

Night had begun to set on the unidentified planet. Helga and Qwark had returned with a few edible roots and fruit, but not much; just enough to tide them over for the night. Skidd returned with mostly twigs and small sticks, but a few good-sized logs to keep a fire going. Al was still working on repairing the ship, but Clank was finished recharging and was now helping him with the more delicate repairs.

Ratchet and Sasha however, needed to recover from their injuries. It turned out that Ratchet had suffered a minor concusion from his impact in the ship, and Sasha had received a twisted ankle and a broken arm from the crash landing, and without any Nanotech, they would have to let their injuries heal naturally.

"Hold still," Ratchet told Sasha. He needed to set her broken arm with a splint or else it wouldn't heal properly. He made one by tying together some stiff sticks with a stringy type of grass.

Sasha wore a pained expression as the makeshift cast was applied, but didn't make a sound in complaint.

Ratchet smiled inwardly. He knew she was tougher than she looked.

When Ratchet was finished, Sasha examined the dressing and tested moving her arm.

"That feels much better. Thanks," she said, smiling.

"You're welcome. I'm sure you'd prefer Nanotech, but we have to make due with what we have right now," he laid down next to the fire, placing his hands beneath his head for support, "Think we'll get out of here anytime soon?" he added as an afterthought.

Sasha thought for a moment. "It all depends on how soon the ship is repaired, and how quickly we can dig it out of the ground," she said, lying down next to him.

There was a momentary silence. All that could be heard was the snoring of the Q-Force, who had gone to sleep an hour ago.

"The fire's dying down," Ratchet finally said, "I think we should follow their lead."

"Good idea," said Sasha, yawning.

Ratchet placed his arm around Sasha's shoulders, and Sahsa rested her head on his shoulder. Within moments, they were asleep.

* * *

A pair of yellow, pupil-less eyes watched as the off-worlders went to sleep. The thing owning the eyes took great interest in these newcomers. For all it knew, they were its ticket off of this planet.

* * *

Hope you guys are in the mood for a cliffhanger! If any of you are wondering about what Nefarious is up to, just be patient with me until next chapter.

I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed my story and gave me such great feedback!


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks to procajun2707, dooberdob, Catalyst of MSAD51, jay winters, and Mr. D 91 for reviewing Ch.6!

300 hits! Awesome! Another thanks to all my dedicated readers!

Author's Note: Sorry, but I don't have any ideas as to what Nefarious and Lawrence are going to do, so this chappie will again focus on Ratchet, but don't worry, Nefarious will still be in this story in later chapters.

Okay, enough formalities; on to Ch. 7!

Ratchet groggily stirred from his sleep, involuntarily stretching. It was then that he noticed that his hands were not touching the ground. In fact, his _entire_ body wasn't touching the ground. Fully aware now, he jerked his head to his left and right, but it was to dark to see anything.

Ratchet tried to move, but found himself suspended from something. His eyes finally adjusting to the light, he looked around again and found himself in a damp cave, pools of water and stalactites scattered throughout its dank interior.

It was then that a cold voice spoke, "Don't bother struggling. Even if you do find a way to untie yourself, there is a rather nasty surprise waiting for you just below."

Ratchet glanced down and saw a dark pit below him. Without proper lighting, he didn't know how deep it went, and he wasn't exactly dying to find out hands-on.

He looked in the direction that the voice came from and said, very rapidly, "Who are you? Where am I? What did you do with the others? I swear if you hurt ANY of them I'll shove my Decimator so far up your-."

"Relax. If I were you, I would be more worried about my current situation," the voice responded casually.

"Who are you already!" Ratchet yelled.

"Chatty, are we? Very well. Since you won't be escaping anytime soon, I guess I could indulge you."

It was then than a liquidy, shifting form emerged from the shadows. It was reminiscent of animated mercury, bulging and thinning in random places. The only seemingly permanent features of the thing were two glowing yellow spots.

Ratchet's jaw dropped. This was definitely NOT something he had ever encountered before.

"What are you?" he managed.

"If you must know, an experiment," the thing responded, "experiment T-34 by none other than Dr. Nefarious. I was developed by him about 2 years ago with advanced nanotechnology as the ultimate stealth infiltrator and assassin, to overtake and overthrow the galaxy's government. Unfortunately, there was a raid on the lab I was developed in, and I was forced to flee here. I've been searching for a way off this rock since then, and I think you and your friends have provided an excellent way of doing so."

Ratchet smiled at this. "Do you really think that they wouldn't notice you? I mean, it's a little difficult not to see a shiny puddle of goo."

T-34 moved closer and rose up, becoming taller and thinner. "And that is why I have this useful little feature."

A thick pseudopod shot out from the liquid being, enveloping the left side of his head. He then felt a cold slither in his ear as the slimy appendage made its way through the canal.

Five seconds later, his cranium erupted in blinding pain; it felt as if his entire head were splitting open. He would have screamed as loud as he possibly could if the muscles of his jaw hadn't seized up.

It seemed like an eternity before the tentacle withdrew, and T-34 began to crackle with electricity.

Ratchet watched as the amorphous being slowly began to change its shape, first melting into a puddle, and then rebuilding itself in a familiar humanoid form.

Ratchet gaped at the new form of his captor: It was about 5 feet tall with bright orange fur and brown stripes on its newly formed ears. It was wearing Aegis Mark V armor.

In essence, it had become him.

T-34 grinned smugly and said, in Ratchet's own voice, "I think I'll get back to my friends now. They're probably wondering where I am," turned, and left the cave without another word.

The imposter quickly covered the short distance to the crashed drop ship, eager to leave this forsaken planet. Once there, he encountered a female Cazar, who was frantically looking around. By what he had gathered from Ratchet's mind, her name was Sasha, and was the Captain of the late Starship Phoenix. She seemed to be of great importance to Ratchet. Good. The extra influence would be of great use.

He called over to her and, after a short conversation, they returned to the interior of the drop ship to check the flight computers.

Ratchet was beginning to get a headache from hanging upside-down for so long, and his temper was getting ever shorter. He glanced around for what seemed like the thousandth time for any way to get out of his predicament. He noticed a stalactite that was closest to him and began to swing on its direction. After several tries, he managed to grab it.

"_Good,"_ he thought to himself _"Now what?"_

He wracked his brain for several seconds, and came up with only one idea. He wasn't sure if it would work, but, since he needed both hands free to untie himself, it was the only possibility.

He clamped his jaw tightly on the side of the stone stalactite and let his hands go. He fumbled with the knot for a few a seconds before finally loosening it enough for him to slip through.

At that point, though, there was a loud snap as the stalactite gave under his weight, and fell, taking him with it.

He landed on the cold stone floor hard, the pain accompanied by a slightly metallic taste in his mouth.

He spit and saw a bloody tooth lying on the floor of the cave.

"He'll pay for that too."

Whew, finally. Sorry for the long wait. Blame school and writer's block. Anyway, REVIEW PLEASE!


	8. Chapter 8

Sorry about the shortness of chapter seven. This one will be longer

Another big thanks to all of my reviewers and dedicated readers!

Chapter 8

* * *

"Where were you? I- I mean-, WE were worried!" Sasha exclaimed, wearing an expression of mixed relief and annoyance.

"Just checking out the surrounding area. Making sure there's nothing dangerous here," lied T-34.

"Looking for threats without a weapon? That's pretty careless for you Ratchet."

"Oh, right. I forgot," responded the imposter. _"Damn," _he thought, _"Ratchet's mind was rather resistant. I wasn't able to extract all of his memories."_

"Either way, we need you back at the ship," said Sasha, gesturing in the direction of the crash site, "Al doesn't know anything about mechanics, and I'd rather not be traveling through space with a faulty engine."

T-34 scanned his memory core for any absorbed information on ship mechanics and structure, and was relieved when he found an entire schematic on Ranger drop ships.

"Alright. Let's get going then," he said, following the Cazar through a makeshift path through the thick foliage back to the ship.

* * *

Nefarious sat twiddling his metal thumbs in boredom and annoyance as the ship Lawrence had selected crawled slowly through space toward its destination.

"Can't this hunk of junk go any faster!" he yelled to Lawrence, fed up with the waiting.

"Sorry, sir, but no; this is a leisure ship, so it's not exactly designed to fly at light speeds."

"If it can't fly at light speeds, then why did you pick it out of those dozens of other ships that you know _can_ travel at light speeds!"

"I like the color, and it gets such good fuel mileage"

"Lawrence…," growled Nefarious dangerously, shaking his fist, "If we don't find Daxx soon, I'll-."

"One moment, sir. We've just come into visual contact with our destination," said Lawrence, pointing through the front window.

The doctor looked up to see the welcome sight of planet Daxx come into view. Clouds covered some of the surface, accompanied by the blue of the oceans and several enormous industrial areas.

"Well it's about damn time!" exclaimed Nefarious, "Hurry up and find my laboratory and land so I can put my ideas to use."

"Very well, sir," replied Lawrence. He input the lab's coordinates into the ship's computer. A few seconds later, a tone sounded, indicating that the sensors had located the compound.

Lawrence pulled their small ship down through the planet's atmosphere. "Landing procedure initiated," said the ship's automated computer helpdesk voice as the craft came down toward the landing strip.

* * *

Ratchet ran as fast as he could through the dense jungle, tripping over rocks and vines as he did, and cursing his legs for their shortness.

"_There's no way that imposter is getting off this planet if I have anything to do with it, no way I'd let it harm any of my friends, no way I'd let it harm-."_

His thoughts were cut off when he tripped over a rock, loosing his balance, and fell into a large mass of mud with a comical _splat_. He struggled to get up, but was surprised when his hands and feet had nothing to push against. Added to that, he was quickly beginning to sink into the mud.

He glanced to his sides frantically, searching for something, anything, to use in order to pull himself out. He found a vine and began the slow process of pulling himself out of the muck.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally succeeded in freeing himself from the natural deathtrap and continued running through the jungle, a little worse for wear, but no less determined to smear his enemy all over the forest floor.

* * *

After about ten minutes of walking through the forest, T-34 and the unsuspecting Sasha finally arrived at the crash site. Al, Qwark, and Skidd were standing behind the recently unearthed ship, seemingly having an argument.

"I'm telling ya, dude, just give me some time with this little baby and that ship'll be as good as new," said Skidd, brandishing a crowbar.

"And _I'm _telling_ you _that you have no idea how to use that thing," said Qwark, pointing at the crowbar in Skidd's hand. "You have to use the curved part, not the straight part!" he added, attempting, and failing, to grab the tool from Skidd's hands.

"Will you two knock it off already?" said Al. "Neither of you know how to fix this ship, so we should just wait until Captain Sasha finds Ratchet."

"For all we know, they could both be hopelessly lost in that jungle doing who knows what," replied Qwark, "They may never get back."

"Oh, look, here they come," said Al, ignoring Qwark, and pointing. Skidd had a moment of insight as to what Qwark had said and snickered.

Qwark and Skidd turned to see Ratchet and Sasha emerge from the dense jungle and approach the drop ship.

T-34 analyzed the three new lifeforms: the first was the retired hoverboard champion Skidd Marxx from the planet Rilgar, now a member of the so-called "Q-Force" that had defeated his creator. The next was Al of Al's Roboshack on planet Pokitaru, also a member of the Q-Force, and specializing in electronics and computers. The last, and by all means least, was the over-hyped, idiot of a super-hero, Captain Qwark. How Qwark had managed to survive one day without his millions of delusional fans, was beyond even T-34's processing power.

The Rilgarian was the first to speak.

"Hey, man, where ya been all this time?" he said, grinning.

"Yeah! There's work to be done here, so don't think you can weasel your way out of your work!" said Qwark in his normal overly-prominent voice.

Everyone but the look-alike rolled their eyes.

T-34 would have loved to strangle the spandex-clad moron, but he restrained himself. Such an indulgence would blow his cover wide open and prevent his escape.

"You mean the ship? Don't worry about that, I'll have it fixed in no time," he said, pulling out the Omnywrench that he had stolen from Ratchet. He then walked over to the ship and proceeded to repair the engine.

Hours passed, and night began to fall. The sun was about to set when the imposter emerged from the engine compartment.

"It's getting to dark to see. I'll have to finish the repairs tomorrow." He was lying, of course, but none of those organics would know that. After they fell asleep, he would take the ship for himself and leave _them_ stranded here instead. He smiled at the thought of it.

Sasha came around the ship. "What's left to repair?" she said, looking at him quizzically.

"Well, the plasma conduit is still loose, and the heat dissipation panel needs a bit more work, but I should be able to get them fixed by midday tomorrow," he lied.

Unluckily for T-34, a small amount of plasma gas still remained in the ship's exhaust line, and just now had enough pressure built up to force it out of the system.What's more,the look-alike was standing right next to the exhaust opening.

An incredibly hot, blue-white plasma mist was expelled from the engine with great force, engulfing T-34, who let out a scream laced with static. Sasha jumped back to avoid the cloud of searing gas, but her left arm was still to close and suffered painful radiation burns.

She looked back in horrer, expecting to see Ratchet's charred body lifelesson the ground, but was instead greeted by the most bizzare, and frightening, thing she had seen on her life: What was once Ratchet had become a shifting mass of shining liquid with two glowing spots that she could only interpret as eyes. It reminded her ofthe monster on a horror movie she'd seen when she was younger.

She was about to scream, but a silverytenticle sprouted out of the creature's side, wrapping itself tightly around her throat. It was at that point that Al, Qwark, Skidd, Helga, and Clank came around to the back of the ship and gaped in awe as they saw Sasha's captor.

The blob-like hostile wasted no time; two bolts of electricity shot from it, hitting Clank and Helga, deactivating them, and they fell to the ground with _clangs._ Three more tenticles emerged and quickly subdued the other mambers of the Q-Force before they could sufficiently react.

Her airflow cut off, Sasha struggled to breathe. Her vision was begining to fade, and she weakly uttered one word:

"Ratchet..."

She gave up her fight for breath and blacked out.

* * *

HA! Horrible cliffhanger huh? You'll just have to wait until next chapter. One more thing: there WILL be fluff next chapter, so be prepared! 


	9. Chapter 9

Before I get to the chapter, time to reply to reviews! (Don't you just love it when I make you wait?)

**To pyrocajun2707:** My mistake on the roboshack thing. I was thinking of the place where you get the thruster pack, and about Lawrence and Nefarious, let's just say that they weren't to far from Daxx in the first place ;-).

**To Mr. D 91:** Once again, my mistake with the roboshack. I haven't played the 1st game in ages.

**To RatchetSly: **Do make sure to read the rest of the story if you get the chance. And hurry with you're other fic! I'd like to see what Ratchet and Clank story you'll write.

Thanks to everyone for their encouragement!

Now that that's over, on the Ch. 9!

* * *

_"Great, now I'm lost. This can't get any worse," _thought Ratchet. He had been running through the thick forest for hours, and every minute that passed increased the chances that he would never see any of his friends again. 

It was then that he noticed something. Had he been any farther away, he would have missed it; an artificial-looking path cut through the thick foliage of the jungle, leading to a large clearing with an dark, familiar shape in the center.

Ratchet sprinted as fast as he could down the path, completely ignoring the flaura cutting at his legs. He knew he had to get there fast. If the ship was still there, that meant that he could still prevent T-34 from escaping, but it didn't necissarily mean that everyone at the camp was safe.

He erased the thought from his mind and replaced it with wondering which weapon he would use on the doppleganger.

He finally arrived at the landing site and, to his dismay, discovered it abandoned.

The bad thoughts came back, more vivid then ever.

With effort, he pushed them aside and found his weapon case. He pulled out his Liquid Nitrogen Gun, Splitter Rifle, and Shock Cannon. Unfortunately, his Omnywrench was missing, so he had to replace it with a metal rod that he found in the ship's cargo hold.

He decided to search around the camp for any sign of where everyone had disappeared to. After about a minute, he found what he was looking for, and more; behind the ship lay Clank and Helga, along with sets of footprints and drag-marks.

He immediately ran over to inspect Clank. The only problem was that his power cell had been shorted-out. It would need to be replaced before Clank could be reactivated.

Satisfied that the two robots would be okay, he focused on the tracks, which, like in every cliched mystery holovid he'd ever seen, led into the forest.

"No surprise there," he said to himself, equiping his Splitter Rifle and making his way into the dense jungle.

* * *

T-34 carried his unconscious prisoners through the jungle. Though a small issue had arisen, he had dealt with it easily enough. He had expected more of the famed 'Q-Force', but, like its moronic leader, it was nothing but an over-hyped waste of space. Even Ratchet had not lived up to his reputation, putting up no fight whatsoever. 

Being impatient at the moment, he decide to simply do-away with the rest of the organics. One of them being trapped here for the rest of his life would be satisfying enough.

He dropped his captives unceremoniously onto the jungle floor and began to shape-shift into one of the planets indigionous predators; a quadrpedal beast with short, matted grey hair, four three-inch-long claws on each foot, and a mouth filled with needle-like teeth.

The Cazar stirred groggily when she hit the ground and looked up at the beast. She quickly stood up, backing away, and drawing an emergency laser pistol with her good arm.

"Stay back!" she shouted trying to sound threatening, though knowing that the weapon she held was woefully innadiquate for the situation didn't help.

T-34 knew that the weapon wasn't even a mild threat to him, and began to advance on her, growling.

She pulled the weapon's trigger several times, and the pistol emitted thin, yet blazing hot, beams of light. Each was right on target, yet T-34 only opened small holes in his body, allowing the lasers to pass right through.

Suddenly, a bright beam of energy sliced throught the air, impacting on T-34's back, passing straight through him, and finally stopping at the ground, melting it, and leaving a patch of molten glass.

The shape shifter howled in pain and reverted to his normal form.

* * *

Ratchet looked at his target through the scope of his Splitter Rifle, gritting his teeth in spite. His first shot had been a direct hit, blowing a huge hole in the target, which promptly changed back to its origional form. Its a good thing he had arrived when he did; it looked like it was about to attack Sasha. 

He pulled the trigger again; another direct hit, this one splattering the amorphous being all over the clearing. Sasha looked in the direction of the beam he had fired and smiled, as if she had realized he was there. It wouldn't surprise him if she did; he _was_ the only other person on this planet.

He put away his Splitter Rifle and equipped his Shock Cannon, sprinting to meet the enimy head-on.

* * *

A second shot sounded, and Sasha's captor seemed to explode, sending a spray of shining particles in every direction. Looking past the glittering droplets, she saw a familiar figure. Just a silhouette, no details, but its unique shape made it rather obvious as to who it was. 

A wide smile of relief crossed her face.

When she snapped back to the matter at hand, the shimmering drops had already begun to re-form into a single mass. She took the chance to try to get away from her captor, and began to run from the clearing. Unfortunately, her injured ankle wouldn't allow it, and gave under her weight, sending her to the ground with a painful _thud_.

By now, T-34 had fully re-constructed himself.

"Where do you think you are going?" it said, eyeing her menacingly.

She reached for her pistol again, but the hostile quickly struck her hand with a tentacle, sending the weapon skidding 15 feet away. It once again snaked around her neck, lifting her completely off the ground. It slammed her against a nearby tree, knocking the wind out of her, and sending a wave of pain through her injured arm.

Regaining her bearings, she struggled to pull the appendage from her throat and looked up; T-34 was now holding a self-formed spike only inches frome her face.

Without a word, it pulled the weapon back, and Sasha braced herself for the strike...

**VOOOOOOOM!**

An a thick burst of blue energy beams blasted from the trees to the right, snapping several of them, and once again blowing the shape-shifter to pieces, causing him to drop Sasha to the ground.

She sat for a second to catch her breath, clutching her throat, and looked up just as Ratchet emerged from the forest, holding his Shock Cannon.

"Leave... her... alone." He hissed through gritted teeth.

Seeing that the threat was minimal, at least for the moment, Ratchet turned to Sasha and helped her to stand.

"Good to see you again," she wheezed, still partially winded, leaning on him for support.

"You too. I would've been here sooner, but I was a little tied up," he responded, not intending the pun.

There was a short silence.

Movement to their right caught their attention; the silver drops were once again moving together, this time just outside the clearing.

"Geez, he just won't stay down, will he?" said Ratchet, somewhat frustrated. He looked at Sasha. "Can you stand?"

"I think so," she replied, using her good arm to prop herself against a tree.

"Alright. Once I finish this thing off, we can finally get out of here," he said, cautiously advancing toward the edge of the clearing and equiping his Liquid Nitrogen Gun.

A twig snapped to his right, he twisted toward it and fired his weapon,freezing and shattering half a dozen trees and revealing nothing. A bit tenser now, he scanned the treeline for signs of movement; nothing except a few leaves moving in the slight breeze.

_"What, did he run away? What a wi-," _**THUMP.**

He suddenly found himself pinned to the ground by T-34, once again the four-legged predator. The impact knocked the weapon from his hands, sending it sliding. The beast tore at Ratchet with its deadly claws, leaving deep gouges in his armor. A few claws managed to find their way through the armor, tearing flesh and lacerating muscle.

Ratchet gripped the metal pole he had taken from the drop ship's cargo hold and...

_clang_

_clang _

_clang_

...slammed it repeatedly into the monster's head, giving him a chance to roll away from his attacker; his left arm had been viciously slashed, was bleeding profusely, and its muscles refused to respond. Ratchet shakily came to his feet, his arm hanging limply.

T-34 turned to face the lombax and dashed at him.

Ratchet dove and barely dodged the attack, which instead impacted on a tree, snapping it off comepletly.

Ratchet's vision began to cloud; the blood-loss was starting to affect him.

The creature once again turned to face Ratchet, intent on tearing him apart.t

It took step forward and...

_shhhhhhhh-craack_

... was quickly encased in ice, breaking into four pieces.

Ratchet looked up, and there was Sasha, holding the Liquid Nitrogen Gun.

Ratchet gave a smile of relief, and succumbed to unconsciousness.

* * *

"Ahh, just like I remember it," said Dr. Nefarious fondly, walking around his laboratory on Daxx, examaning the vast manageri of machines and experiments. 

"I hate to interrupt your trip down memory lane sir, but aren't you here to finish your 'ingenious plan?'" said Lawrence, forming quotes with his fingers.

"Wha? Oh, right," replied Nefarious. "Help me find the plans for my Biobliterator."

"But, sir, I thougt you said you weren't making another one," said Lawrence, his dissapointment evident.

"I'm not! Or, at least, not exactly. Now quit complaining and help me find the plans!"

After several hours of searching through old computer files, Nefarious found what he was looking for.

"Lawrence! Come over here!" he shouted.

"Yes sir?"

"I need you to edit this file for me."

"Can't you do that sir?"

"Don't you know anything about the Villian-Assistant chain? The assistant always does the work for the Villian!"

"Very well. What would you like me to do with the plans, sir?"

"Get rid of that, and that,"said Nefarious, pointing at various structures on the plans,"oh and that needs to go, and that does too."

"But that only leaves the central tramsmutation core."

"Exactly. It's the only part of it I really need."

The doctor then proceeded to assign several mining droids to harvest from nearby quarry in a rock formtion to the south.

"What are those for, sir?" asked Lawrence.

"You'll find out soon enough Lawrence."

* * *

Ratchet groaned, his arm throbbing with pain. It was times like this that he wished he carried small cases of Nanotech with him. His arm was no longer bleeding, however, and he was no longer lying on the ground. Instead, he opened his eyes, and was greeted by the interior of the dropship; moreover, the portholes on the side of the ship showed the starry void of space. 

They had escaped.

He attempted to sit up, but was dissuaded by a gentle push.

He looked and saw Sasha, a relieved look on her face.

She bent down and kissed him softly.

"You took quite the beating down there, hotshot. How do you feel?"

"Much better," he replied, smiling, "Anything happen while I was out?"

"Freezing that thing bought us enough time to get off that planet. Qwark and the others needed adabliquid nitrogen persuasion before they woke up, though."

They shared a laugh.

"Anyway, we're on route to Marcadia now."

Ratchet glanced at the cockpit.

"Qwark isn't piloting the ship is he?" he said, thinking about the last time that he had.

"Of course not; the ship's on autopilot. You didn't actually think I'd let him drive, did I?" she asked, grinning.

"Not really, just making sure."

Silence.

"Anywa, it'll be a few hours until we reach Marcadia. We might as well get some rest while we can. It's going to be a barrage of meetings and interviews once we get there."

"Good idea," replied Ratchet.

And they slept.

* * *

Whew, FINALLY. Well, there ya go, a tiny bit of fluff for the fans. Give mechance though, this is my first story, so don't jump all over me if it isn't everything you expected it to be. Suggestions will be considered.

Anyway, sorry for the delay. School and writer's block (as well as a recentre-addiction to Halo 2 online) take their toll.

As always, REVIEW!


	10. Chapter 10

First, mail-time!

**To Mr. D 91:** Hmm... I'll think about that. I didn't really intend for T-34 to be a lasting character, but I'll see what I can come up with. As for the begining of chapter 6, I'll explain it in time.

**To pwn u wit da wrench & Catalyst of MSAD51: **Thanks for the encouragement. And about the gramatical errors,my spacebar, 'A' key, and the quote/apostrophe key are bit screwed up, so they don't always work.

**To pyrocajun2707 & blackhawk91613: **All I can say is thanks and I'm glad you enjoy the story.

All you writers make sure to update your fics ASAP!

Now for what you're all waiting for:

Chapter 10

* * *

It was the most comfortable sleep Ratchet had experienced in these past few months, despite the fact that he was sleeping on the bench of a Ranger dropship. He had managed to prop himself in the top-left corner of the ship before he drifted off, though this quickly changed when he slumped over to the left with a small snore, one bandaged arm hanging limply off the edge. 

Sasha sat next to the sleeping ratchet, smiling inwardly.

_"I don't think I'll ever get him to wake-up," _she thought, shaking her head slightly.

She decided to leave Ratchet to his rest, and check on their progress to Marcadia. She went to the cockpit and checked the instruments; nominal fuel supply, autopilot on course, repairs holding up, everything looked good, so far at least. There was no guarentee that whoever sabotaged the Pheonix had given up on them.

With that thought, she made a quick glance at the ship's radar. Nothing abnormal.

Her concerns put to rest, she slumped tiredly into the pilot's seat with a sigh, sparing a look at the flight clock; still 12 hours until they arrived. She decided that she would sleep there, as the ship would need manual piloting in order to land properly, and Ratchet wasn't in any condition to do so.

She let her thoughts drift for a few minutes, and hereyelids soonbecame heavy, and she drifted of to sleep.

* * *

After several hours, Nefarious had replicated the origional prototype transmutation core about two dozen times, with several modifications that he had yet to reveal, even to Lawrence. He then ran them through a machine, and they emerged clad in heat-resistant, shock absorbant Carbonox-A3 armor plating. 

"Good..." he said, rubbing his clawed hands together while eyeing the hardware admiringly.

Suddenly, a holoscreen flew up to Nefarious, displaying Lawrence's face.

"Sir, the miner bots have returned."

"Excellent," he replied, drawing out the e's, "send them in."

A portal-like door opened, and three-dozen large robots entered the expansive lab;they had six wheels mounted on flexible drive trains, each with their own seperate engine for extra power. On top of that was a solidly built titanium-carbonox alloy chassi that supported a large payload cylinder. The fronts of the robots were flat and featureless, reflecting their lack of independant thought.

The doctor pressed several keys on a console, and several construction bots entered the lab through the same portal, each fitted with a blow-torch on their right hands.

Another tap on the keyboard, and each mining robot placed their cylindrical containers on the laboratory floor, each one opening with _a_ quick _swish _sound.

The new entrants proceeded to empty the cylenders' of their contents, which consisted of a dark-colored iron ore cut into thick slabs. Each robot picked up a slab and began to, carfully, weld them to to the armor-clad transmutation cores.

A few hours later, Nefarious examined his minion's handywork: the transmutation cores were completly covered by the slabs.

"Excellent work," he said, voice dripping with satisfaction, "Now no one will be able to figure out what they are. At least, not until it's to late to do anything about it."

He began to chuckle, quickly escalating into a malicious laugh. Then a hiccup. Then a laugh again.

* * *

Ratchet's mind drifted to random thoughts as he slept, leaving it's corporeal body to rot for all it cared. Many of the memories it visited were recent; images of battles and firefights from late in the Tyhrranoid War, or of their fiasco on the jungle world. His muscles tensed as the dreams commenced. Eventually, his consciousness found its way to smoother, calmer thoughts, and his tired muscles relaxed, allowing them to rest. 

It seemed like it had been only minutes when he felt something jerk at his free-floating consciousness.

His mind struggled against the force that pulled at it, not wanting to leave it's relaxed state, but to no avail. It was as if a rope had been tied around his consciousness, pulling it back toward the waking world.

Eventually, it gave up and allowed itself to be pulled back to it's unmoving body.

Ratchet stirred; someone was tugging at his ear.

He slowly opened his weary eyes and lifted his head to see a blurry shape in front of him. He sat up and rubbed his eyes to see Sasha sitting in front of him.

"Hey, hotshot. Good to see you awake finally," she greeted with an amused smile. "It sure took long enough. How are you feeling?"

He became suddenly aware of his injured arm. "Well, I've definately felt better," he said with a yawn, stretching his good arm, "and you?"

She lfted her splinted arm. " It hurts a little, but that's it. We'll get patched up at the palace."

"Alright."

They stood and walked out of the dropship. Ratchet looked around as they did; they hadtouched downon a small landing pad near the palace, which loomed a short distance away.

Ratchet turned to Sasha. "Where's everyone else?" he asked.

"Well, some mechanics came and carted off Helga and Clank for repairs, amd Qwark and the others already went to the palace. I can only imagine the crowd gathered inside."

They walked side-by-side to the palace and paused outside the doors.

"Well, ready for the rush?" asked Sasha.

Ratched shrugged his shoulders, "Ready as I'll ever be."

Each taking a deep, prepatory breath, they pushed the palace door open, the wooden portal creaking slightly.

When the door opened, a crowd of HV news reporters stood in the main foyar of the palace, apparently surrounding Qwark, Al, and Skidd. Upon hearing the door open, the group turned their collective heads toward the entrance like they were one cohesive being, and were upon Ratchet and Sasha before either could do anything about it, snapping pictures, extending microphones, and asking questions, questions, and more questions.

"Captain, how will losing control of your ship twice affect your career?" one reporter asked in a fast pace.

"Well, I-"

She was drowned out by another journalinst, this one addresing Ratchet.

"Seargent Ratchet, Captain Qwark said that you are a shapeshifter bent on conquering the galaxy. Is that true?"

"Wha? No, I think he mis-"

A reporter with a Galactic Enquireor tag on his hat cut him off, "And is it true that the President should be expecting grandchildren sometime soon?"

"What!" they both yelled over the crowd.

By now, Sasha had had enough, "Alright, out of the way, we don't need a bunch of leeches following us around the palace!"

They began to walk in the direction of the Medbay, but the crowd refused to listen. Ratchet turned to face them and said, "Hey, you heard her! Go bother someone else! And take your damn equipment with you!" finishing with a sweeping gesture.

After that, they were able to make it to the infurmery without furthur delay. They walked through the automatic doors and looked around the room; the walls were pure white and the air smelled of medical supplies. They entered a small room labeled FIRST AID in red letters and found a box of nanotech cylinders.

Sasha took one of the cylinders and held it up.

"You first," she said, "you'll have to lose the bandages"

"Right," repliled Ratchet. He lifted his limp arm onto a table and proceeded to unwrap it. With all the blood dried, the severity of the wound was realized; the tendon connecting his deltoid to his bicep had been cleanly severed, and the main artery that supplied blood to his arm had been cut open.

Sasha opened the cylinder, which emitted a small _hiss, _and poured the nanotech onto Ratchet's wound, which immediately began to close, the tendon re-attaching, and the artery sealing.

Ratchet tested his repaired arm, raising it and flexing his fingers, "That's much better. Now we need to fix your arm."

As Sasha sat at the table, Ratchet picked up another cylinder and began torummage through the cabinets. After a minut, he found what he was looking for: a rather large syringe. He opened the cylinder and attached the syringe to the open end.

Sasha's ears lowered slightly at the sight of the syringe. She didn't like needles. It was an old childhood phobia of hers.

Remembering this fact, Ratchet took her hand, offering comfort.

She looked at him and smiled nervously.

He smiled warmly back, "Hold still."

Sasha averted her eyes and gritted her teeth as the needle penetrated the flesh and muscle of her arm.

The syringe was retracted seconds later, the bone mended.

Ratchet cut off the splint with a scalpel, "Better?"

"Much," replied Sasha, "Now that we're done her, we should go to the conference room. We're having a meeting with my dad."

_"Great,"_ thought Ratchet.

* * *

Outside of the palace, a lone guard stood at a guard tower.

"Huhh, why amI standing out here?" he said to himself, "No one's going to attack the palace. Hell, there's no one _left_ to attack the palace. Oh well..."

He looked up and shielded his eyes from the blazing sun. He then noticed something; a small red dot in the normally blue sky.

He grabbed his binoculars and looked at it, curiosity increasing.

His jaw dropped.

He flung the binoculars to the ground and scrambled to the other side of the tower, tripping over his own feet in the process. He got up as quickl as possible, broke the glass case on the wall, and hit the red button inside.

* * *

There. Finally. Chapter 10 is up. Man, I need to cut back on the video games... anyway, make sure to review the chapter! 


	11. Chapter 11

Mail time!

**To Mr.D 91:** Once again, you'll find out.

**To majinvegeta321:** Thanks!

**To pyrocajun2707: **So you're finally back huh? Good to know. Anyway, thanks for the encouragement! And don't forget to update your fic, I've been waiting for weeks!

And now to the story.

Chapter 11

* * *

Nefarious and Lawrence stood in the cabin of an automatedshuttle, Lawrence humming a tune, and Nefarious tapping his foot impatiently. 

"So, where are we headed again, sir?" asked Lawrence for thethird time (with the solepurpose of pestering the doctor).

"Ugh, for the last time Lawrence," replied Nefarious, sliding a hand down his face,"we're going to a space station I built a few years ago."

"What was it for?"

"Just another one of my plots for galactic domination," said Nefarious with a casual wave of the hand.

"So why did you never use it?"

"Well, it's... slightly embarassing actually... by the time the station was completed, I had discovered the secret to my bioblitorator, and sort of forgot about it."

"It wouldn't be the first time," said Lawrence, to quietly for Nefarious to hear.

"Well, regardless, it plays a key role in the task at hand. Once we arrive, order the cargo droids to unload the transmutation cores. I'lltake it from there."

"Very well, sir."

* * *

Thrity minutes later, the station came into view through the forward portals of the shuttle; it consisted of five large sperical chambers, each connected by tunnels lined with small windows. It would look like any standard space station if not for one thing; a large coil-like structure connected to the station's largest chamber. Small, dim lights lined the coil, giving it an eerie blue glow. 

Th shuttle made its way to the docking ports of the station's cargo unloading room. The ship slowed to a near stop and came into contact with the docking port, creating a hissing sound as the pressure equalized.

Lawrence and Nefarious stepped out of the shuttle, the cargo bots following close behind.

"Lawrence! Turn off the auxiliary power and activate the main generator," ordered Nefarious, "I'll take these bots to where I need them."

"Very well, sir." Lawrence walked over to a nearby holoscreen, pushed a sequence of buttons, and the lights came on, flooding the station with a bright white glow.

Meanwhile, Nefarious was taking the cargo robots down one of the station's passageways. After a minute or two, they arrived at their destination; the station's largest room, and the one on which the coil was mounted on.

The doctor turned to face the cargo bots and pointed toward what looked like a long pipe. Knowing his intent, the robots obediantly walked over to the pipe and placed the transmutation cores inside, each sliding out of the way to make room for the next.

At this point, Lawrence entered the room, just as a large holoscreen activated in front of Nefarious, displaying the coil, whose lights had turned from blue to red.

Nefarious typed a little more on the holoscreen and the coil began to crackle with electricity.

"What exactly is that, sir? A hologram projector?" asked Lawrence.

"No, Lawrence." replied the doctor, "If you must know, it's a weapon; a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon to be exact, otherwise known as a rail gun. It uses immense electro-magnetic fields to propel objects at enourmous speed! It's beautiful to watch, really." he finshed, eyeing the holoscreen with admiration.

"So, what are you firing, and what is the target?"

"Just watch," replied Nefarious.

He typed more on the keyboard and a planet came into view of the holoscreen. A label with the word 'Kerwan' appeared next to the planet's image, and crosshairs targettedits center.

Nefarious opened a yellow-and-red striped case and pushed the button inside.

The holoscreen switched back to the coil, which was now glowing brightly, blue bolts of lightning arking across its length.

Then, with blinding speed, a grey mass flew from the confines of the coil, and was gone in the depths of space in an instant.

"Sir, was that one of the transmutation cores?" asked Lawrence.

"Indeed it was," replied Nefarious, rubbing his hands together out of satisfaction.

He proceeded to target and fire upon every planet in the system, with the exception of one, which he saved for last.

Finally, he came to the final target; Marcadia, home of the galaxy's government. Once again, the crosshairs appeared, but the doctor had decided to be a little more specific. The view zoomed in, and a large, ornate structure came into view. More specifically, the Galactic Presidential Palace.

* * *

Ratchet and Sasha walked throught the corridors of the Palace to the conference room, dodging the odd group of reporters whenever they came across one. After several minutes, they came to the conferrence room door. They entered, seeing the President and his cabinet seated at a long table. 

Upon seeing them, the president rose from his chair.

"Sasha! Good to see you again." he said, walking overwraping her in a tight hug.

"Dad! Not now!" she protested, squirming a little.

Sorry," he said, releasing her, "It's just that I havn't seen you for quite a while. Anyway, go ahead and sit at the table. The meeting is about to start."

"Ahem," someone said.

The president turned.

Ratchet stood there, arms crossed.

"Oh. Hello Seargent Ratchet." he said flatly. Being a somewhat protective father, he didn't like Ratchet all to much. But he was a brave and respected soldier, so he tolerated him.

They entered the conferrence room. The president resumed his seat at the head of the table, and Ratchet and Sasha sat next to each other about halfway down its length.

Soon after, the president began a long, political speech that Ratchet didn't really care to understand. He placed his chin in his hand and paid little attention, the president's voice turning into a constant drone.

As the president was about to begin a section on planet-to-planet relations, a secratary quietly entered the room, went over to the president, and whispered something in his ear.

"What? Oh my... alright, thanks," the president told the secratary, who promptly left the room.

The president stood, "It seems we have a situation on planet Kerwan," he said.

Ratchet lifted his head, interested now.

"There's been a meteor impact in Metropolis. Appearantly, it was not detected by their radar, so they hadn't known about it until it came into visual range."

A bolt of pain shot through Ratchet's skull, and he placed his forehead in hisright hand, grimacing. Images flashed in his mind; a fireball, the Palace, scorched earth, and rubble.

"Ratchet! What's wrong? Are you alright?" asked Sasha quietly, her voice worried.

The images ceased, and Ratchet lifted his head. "We have to get out of here," he stated.

"Leave? Why?" Sasha asked, confused now.

And that's when the alarms went off.

* * *

There ya go, Ch. 11. I updated a bit faster this time. A jolt of inspiration I guess. Anyway, I hope you like it. 

By the way, I was wondering if anyone would like to make a drawing or art based on my story. I already tried, and, believe me, it sucked horribly (I can't draw. Don't ask me to post it, because I won't). If anyone would like to, I'd appreciate it if someone would make a drawing and send it to my e-mail address. If anyone sends any, I'll incude it at the end of the next chapter.

And as always, review pleeze!


	12. Chapter 12

As always, time to respond to reviews!

**To Mr. D 91: **Just to clarify, the red button was the Palace's alarm system. Basically, the meeting with the President was happening before the guard pushed the button and the alarms went off. I probably wrote it a little wierd. Sorry if I did. And, yes, I do have a plan for all this. It'll be up to you do decide if it's kickass.

**To Catalyst of MAD51: **Yeah, it was a bit short. Don't worry though, the next chapter will be longer, and much more detailed.

**To Majinvegeta321:** I can see that you really like the story!

**To pyrocajun2707: **Yeah, I had a feeling that you'd like the railgun part. Is Ratchet psychic? Maybe, maybe not.

**To Chaos Weilder:** Thanks for all the encouragement! You know how I love to keep my readers in anticipation!

* * *

A robotic voice sounded over the intercom, barely audible over the screeching of the alarms. 

"Incoming C-Class object. Thrity seconds until impact. Evacuate immediately."

At the exact same moment, everyone in the room began to panic, save Ratchet and Sasha. All at once, the cabinet members ran at the room's door, which, of course, led to a horrible pile-up, wasting a good ten seconds off their slim window of escape. Sasha and Ratchet attepted to talk some sense into them, but to no avail, but eventually, the crowd got through the doorway and scattered in different directions.

"We'll never reach the main doors in time!" shouted Ratchet over the noise, "Are there any other ways out of here?"

"There's a back door that leads to a reinforced bunker. It's our best bet for now!"

"Let's hurry, then!"

They both ran as fast as their legs could possibly carry them. In the palace's lengthy halls, crowds of people ran screaming; panicked and confused. Many could not keep pace and disappeared beneath the legs of the others, who could care less who or what they trampled over in their frenzied attempts at escape.

With only 10 seconds left, the door in question came into view; a 6-foot tall heavy iron portal with a small pull ring.

"There is is!" Sasha cried, pointing a gloved finger at it.

9...

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a reporter, the same one from the Galactic Enquireor that had been bothering them earlier, rounded a corner and flew with adrenaline-charged speed at the door, reaching it faster than Ratchet and Sasha could run.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" shouted Ratchet, increasing his speed as much as he could.

8...

The journalist paid them no attention and opened the door, entered, closed it, and locked it in about 2 seconds.

7...

6...

"What the Hell are you doing!" shouted Ratchet after reaching the portal, "Open this door! Open it you bastard!" he continued, slamming his fist against the metal as hard as possible.

It was a useless effort, of course; the man inside wasn't going to open the door no matter how loudly he yelled.

5...

He turned resignedly to Sasha. "Now what do we do?"

She looked around for a second, spotting a large bed in the next room.

"This way!" she said, leading Ratchet by the arm.

4...

3...

Once they reached the room, Sasha crawled underneath the bed, motioning for Ratched to follow. He did so, and thay waited for the inevitable, holding each other for comfort and bracing themselves.

2...

1...

* * *

Outside, crowds of people were fleeing the scene. Most simply ran without so much as a glance back in the direction of the palace. Others, mostly reporters, had their cameras at the ready, waiting for the perfect opportunity for a picture. 

Above the southern horizon, a red point came into view, growing larger with every passing second. It was coming in at a very shallow angle, nearly parallel to the ground, and was headed directly for the palace.

A low roar was soon audible, but it quickly rose to a piercing screech as the meteor sliced through the planets atmospere, glowing from the heat of the friction.

* * *

An immensly loud crash reverberated throughout the palace, accompanied by violent shaking, knocking over shelves andcracking walls and floors. The electricity also went out, bathing the entire complex inpitch black darkeness. 

Ratchet and Sasha held each other tightly throughout the ordeal, their eyes shut tight, neather willing to let go for fear that they might lose the other.

After about three seconds, the bulk of the event was over, the loud roar of the impact replaced with the occasional clatter of a falling object.

The pair opened their eyes. Ratchet was the first to speak.

"I think it's okay now," he said quietly.

They crawled out from under the bed, which was now covered with dust shaken from the ceiling, and walked through the doorway. Surprisingly, the hallway was still intact, picture frames and light fixtures littering the floor.But they needed to leave quickly; who knew how badly the palace's structural integrity had been compromised or how long it could remain standing?

They quickly made their way down the hall, reaching the end and entring the main foyer.

They looked up and stared, the damage here MUCH more apparent than in the hallway; sunlight poured through a gaping hole in the palace's south end, the edge lined with sparking wires and jaggedly broken pipes, some of which dangled in dangerous proximity the the floor. There was another hole in the palace's north end, nearly identical to the first. Several supports in the the sprawling foyer room had also been destroyed, and the ones that remained groaned ominously.

"We should leave as quickly as possible. This place could collapse at any second," said Sasha, glancing around nervously.

"Good idea," replied Ratchet.

They began to climb across the sea of debris that covered the floor, making slow, but steady, progress toward the foyer's main doors.

Then Ratchet noticed something. He stopped and lifted his head, sniffing the air several times.

Sasha turned to see why he had stopped "What is it? What do you smell?" she asked.

"I think it's-"

An explosion went off to his right, cutting him off, and sending him, and bits of flaming debris, careening in different directions.

"-gas." he wheezed after he landed.

The projectiles expelled by the initial explosion met more broken gas lines, causing them to erupt into flames. Soon, the entire room was on fire and filling with smoke.

"Come on!" yelled Sasha, pulling Ratchet up and helping him walk; a large peice of metal shrapnel was embedded in his leg.

Peices of the superstructure began to crumble around them, supports and girdirs snapping and crashing to the ground. They needed to reach the exit before they were both prematurely cremated.

"We're almost there!" shouted Sasha, trying to add a littlehopefullness to the otherwise bleak situation. She was right, though; they were closing in on the door, slowly but surely.

After what seemed like the longest two minutes of their lives, they finally reached the door. The room, however, had reached a critical tempurature, and a wave of flame erupted through the air; a flashover.

The sudden explosion of heated air blasted them out of the palace doors, sending themand bitsof doorskidding along the ground outside.

A chunk of door hit Ratchet hard over the head and, at the speed that it was moving, it was more than enough to send him into unconsciousness.

* * *

A message displayed on the holoscreen:

"All targets hit."

Nefarious grinned, "Excellent."

Lawrence looked at him quizically, "Is that all, sir? I really don't think it will have any long-term effects."

"No, of course that's not it Lawrence! But now that they're all in place," helifted a remote with a large green button in the center,"I can proceed with the next step of the plan."

He lifted his other hand and pressed the button.

* * *

And there we have it, chapter 12. What is Nefarious planning? You'll have to wait until next chapter!XP 

Make sure to leave reviews, and thanks to everyone who hs stuck with the story and given me so much encouragement!


	13. Chapter 13

I saw that there was a lot of anticipation for this chapter, and I don't plan to disappoint! After I respond to reviews, I'll let you see it (although you can just skip over this part).

**To Miss TrippyLombax: **Yeah, I know about the shortness. And about the spacing, my spacebar is a little wonky, and tends to not work sometimes (my brother put something sticky in it).

**To Chaos Wielder: **Yeah, I guess Ratchet is pretty tough (he gets shot/blown-up/hit often enough during his adventuresXP). And about all your questions, they will be answered in the next few chapters.

**To Mr. D 91:** Yup, unconscious again. Eh, call it a author's convenience. I needed to end the chapter somehow, and, at the time, I couldn't think of anything better (truthfully, it's the first real story I've written in my life, so cut me some slack XP) . And of course it's more than an asteroid! If it wasn't, what kind of story would that make for? lol.

* * *

"Ugh..." 

Ratchet's vision blurred, his head trobbing with every beat of his heart. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, looking around; he appeared to be in a medical tent.

"What happ- oh, not again," he said, the realization that he had, once again, been knocked unconscious dawned on him.

He touched the painful part of his head; it was covered with damp gauze. His helmet, obviously, was gone, along with his Aegis Mark V armor, leaving him in his normal cap and cargo pants.

_"Whatever hit me must have left a pretty bad gash,"_ he thought. After a moment, he began to root through the containers that lined the tent. Eventually, he found a cylinder of nanotech. He removed the guaze bandaging from his head; a few drops of blood ran down his face, indicating that the wound was still somewhat fresh.

Wiping the drops from his face, he applied the nanotech to the wound, healing it in seconds.

The pain of his injuries forgotten, his thoughts turned to his friends, and a sudden sense of urgency overcame him. He ran out of the tent and tripped on something short and silver.

"Oof!" he said, falling flat on his face. He turned around, "Oh, hey Clank. Sorry 'bout that."

After being knocked onto his back by the force of Ratchet's foot, Clank stood and said, "Hello Ratchet. I assume that you are feeling better?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ratchet responded quickly, sounding a little frantic,"Where are the others? Is everyone alright?"

"Do not worry, Ratchet, our friends made it out ok," the little robot pointed, "They have gathered in the large tent over there. They sent me to see how you were doing."

"Oh, ok," Ratchet sighed, relieved, "Well, now that I'm up, we might as well go meet up with them."

Ratchet and Clank walked past several other tents on their way to meet up with the rest of the Q-Force. Pained moans could be heard coming from several of them. Occasionally, a field medic would emerge from one of them, sometimes carrying medical tools, sometimes carrying a body bag dripping strange fluids.

A slight chill went up Ratchet's spine. Having fought with and against mass-produced robots for two years, it wasn't often that he saw organics killed. It reminded him of his own mortality.

His train of thought was interrupted when the pair entered a tent, this one spacious with many small tables. In the far right corner sat Al, Skidd, Helga, Qwark, and the GP, and it appeared, judging from his over-expressive gestures, that Qwark was telling a story of his 'personal heroism.' Helga and the GP listened intently. Al and Skidd looked ready to fall asleep.

Sasha was at the center table, sitting with her arms on the table and her fingers interlocked, twindling her thumbs and glancing around anxiously.

She caught sight of Ratchet, and the corners of her mouth curled upward into a smile. Ratchet walked over and sat down at the table with her, Clank following close behind.

"Hey, good to see you up-and-about again," said Sasha, grinning.

"Good to actually _be_ up again. What happened while I was out?"

"Well, the fire spread pretty quickly through the palace, and, as you can imagine, it didn't stay standing for too long. Not everyone got out in time. Luckily, we all did," Sasha responded.

Ratchet's thoughts once again strayed to the bodybags being carried from the medical tents.

"Ratchet? What's up?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing" said Ratchet, snapping back to reality.

"Alright. Anyway, one more thing," said Sasha, "General Chrome needs to see you. He says it's urgent."

_"Genearal Chrome?"_ Ratchet thought. He had heard the Rangers in his division talk about the General every once in a while, but had never actually met him before. Whateverhe had to say, it must be important.

"Alright, I'll go see him then," said Ratchet while getting up from his chair.

After being given some directions and a quick kiss good-bye, Ratchet left for General Chrome's tent. After walking through the camp for several minutes, he found it; it was a smaller, personal tent, the entrance flanked by two Galactic Rangers, both of which saluted as he entered.

General Chrome stood over a table, examining a holographic map of the area; he stood about 7 feet tall and was of blocky build, his metallic body covered with scratches, dents, andscorch marks from previous battles, save his right shoulder plate, which was a gleaming polished silver.

He looked up as Ratchet entered the tent, "Ah, Ratchet! Just the soldierI was looking for," he said in a gruff voice. "'Been waiting for you to wake up for a while now; I need you for an escourt mission."

"With all due respect, sir, why couldn't you have sent some Rangers?" responded Ratchet. He found escourt missions rather boring; not enough stuff to blow up.

"What, those yellow-bellied wastes of scrap metal? You can't trust them with something this important. I need a distinguished soldier for this mission."

"Alright then. What are your orders, sir?" said Ratchet, saluting.

"As you know, the object that destroyed the palace never appeared on radar. That, and the fact that similar incidents have happened all over the galaxy, has led us to believe that these aren't any ordinary meteors. Command is dispatching a small research team to investigate the object, and they need you to make sure nothing goes wrong. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. The team is waiting for you at the camp's north end. Suit up, and move out."

* * *

Ten minutes later, Ratchet met up with the research team, wearing his armor and carrying the Plasma Storm at his side. The team, other than him, consisted of three members, each carrying a case of investigative tools and various gauges, and wearing Hazardous Environmet suits. 

One of the scientists turned to face him, "I assume that you are our escourt?" he said, voice slightly muffled by the suit he wore.

"That's what the general told me," responded Ratchet.

"Good. Let's get moving then."

They set out across the dusty plateau, following the obvious trail that the meteor left behind; it appeared to have hit the ground about three hundred meters away from the palace and continued sliding, carving a scorched ditch in the hard earth.

The trail went on for about a mile when the actual object came into view. As they got closer, they discovered that, remarkably, the meteor was in nearly perfect shape. It was expected to be, at the very least, broken into several pieces, but the fact that it was whole further drove the point that this was no average meteor home.

Ratchet and the scientists moved toward the object cautiously. Once they were close enough, one of the researchers pulled a scanning device from the case he carried and ran it over the meteor several times. A small screen on the gadget diaplayed a reading.

"Seems that this thing is covered in an iron shell. We'll need to get it open somehow if I expect to get an accurate reading."

As if responding to these words, the iron coating the object cracked cleanly down the middle, and the two halves fell open, revealing what looked like a large metal box.

A pole topped with what looked like a megaphone emerged from the top of the machine. After extending to its full hight, a familiar voice issued from it.

"Greetings citizens of planet Marcadia," it said, "I am pleased to inform you that you shall all be transformed into my obedient servants. The process is quite painful.I suggest that you brace yourselves with what little time you have left, as it is already to late; you shall all serve DOCTOR NEFARIOUS! MWAHAHAHAHA!" it finished with that unmistakable laugh.

Ratchet's jaw nearly fell off his face.

The researchers turned to him, "Dr. Nefarious! I though you killed him!" soutd one of them."

"So did-"

Ratchet was cut off by a loud whirring sound coming from the object. He and the scientists turned just in time to see four enourmously thick cables emerge from the sides of the cube, and were just able to dodge them as they slammed down,implanting themselves deep into the ground and throwing dirt everywhere. The machine then began to rise into the air, supportd by its newly made columns. A long antennae rose from the top of the object, extending high into the sky. A dark cloud began to form at its tip.

Suddenly, a redbolt of lightning struck the ground next to Ratchet, causing him to jump out of reflexes.

Anouther bolt struck, and, unfortunately for one of the researchers, was right on target. He screamed as the energy passed through his body, but then something odd happened; his voice changed completely, and he stopped screaming nearly immediatly after. Ratchet gawked at the result.

The scientist was no longer organic, but stood as a robot.

Ratchet looked up; the cloud surrounding the antennea was growing.

"Run!" he yelled, just a just as more bolts of energy began to rain down from the machine. The research team, being in their cumbersome environment suits, were to slow, and joined their former companion.

Ratchet was sprinting back to the camp as fast as he could. He needed to warn the others about this. He activated his radio.

"Ratchet calling General Chrome! Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear! What's going on?"

"Sir, I think we have a problem."

* * *

There ya have it, chapter 13. Make sure to leave revies and tell me what you think!

Later!


	14. Chapter 14

-inhales-

FINALLY!

-huff, huff- Damn writer's block...

And before I forget, I have a forum set up in the R&C section! Feel free to visit and post there!

No review responses this time; not allowed ya know :-(.

Chapter 14

* * *

Ratchet blasted across the desert witn his charge boots. This was something that he couldn't fight alone: if he got anywhere near it, he would instantly become one of Nefarious' minions. The mere thought ofthat filled him with revulsion. 

The camp soon came into view. Having previously notified the General of what was on its way and what it could do, a large group of soldiers was assembled outside of it; former palalce guards and local militia. They were all Galactic Rangers and other verious combat bots, as organic troops would be of little to no use fighting the machine.

While speaking to General Chrome via radio, Ratchet had been instructed to make his way to the command tent; the general neede to speak with him.

He walked through the cluttered, criss-crossed aisles between the tents of the camp, passing robots prepped for battle and organics preparing to leave on shuttles that would take them to the galactic fleet's new flagship, the _Quantum Leap_. Ratchet rounded a corner, and the general's quarters came into view, its entrance no longer flanked by Galactic Ranger guards.

He entered. The general, sitting in a rotating chair, turned to face him.

"You wanted to see me again, sir?" said Ratchet.

"Indeed I did," replied Chrome, standing up, "You said this thing, this walker, has the same effect on organics as Dr. Nefarious' biobliterators?"

"Yes sir; it turns them into robotic slaves."

"Alright. In that case, I have new orders to give you."

"What are they?"

"I need you, and the rest of the Q-Force, to get on one of those shuttles and get out of here before that thing arrives."

"What?" said Ratchet disbelievingly. Having discovered that Nefarious had survived the destruction of the biobliterator, Ratchet felt that he had been denied closure for the unwarrented attacks on his home planet and the entire galaxy. Anything that had to do with Nefarious, he wanted a part in destroying.

"But, sir..." he managed, but he was interrupted.

"I gave you an order, seargent. You and the Q-Force are to get on one of the evac shuttles, get out of here, and get to the flagship. Am I understood?"

A short silence.

"Yes, sir," concieded Ratchet with a sigh, "Just one more thing though. Wait for a second."

Ratchet left the tent. After a few minutes, he returned, carrying his Decimator with him.

"Here," he said, tossing General Chrome the weapon, "It'll probably come in useful." He figured that even if he wasn't there to help, at least one of his favorite weapons would be.

* * *

Ratchet walked to the meeting tent, impervious to the heat of the daydue to his armor's intigrated personal cooling system. He considered it for a second; such old yet effective technology; a thin cloth mesh with small rubber tubes woven through it. A pump pushed warm or cold water trough the tubes, supplying both as needed. The system was first invented when researchers on Marcedia discovered space travel, using it make early astronauts more comfortable in their clunky space suits. It had changed little since that time. 

Arriving at the tent, he stopped his train of thought, snapping back to the situation and opening the tent flap with a slight _shiiff_ sound.

The occupants turned to face the entering lombax (except for Qwark, who fell asleep face-first on one of the tables, and the President, who had left earlier). Due to the muggy heat of the afternoon, they had been forced into a change of wardrobe; Skidd was wearing shorts and a tropical-looking overshirt with sunglasses, Al wore a grey sweatshirt and pants, and Sasha wore a lavender t-shirt and faded blue jeans, but Qwark was still wearing his green tights, having previously fallen asleep in them. How he accomplished that in the 95 degree heat was anyone's guess. Clank, Helga, and Skidd sat at the center table, playing a game of cards.

Clank was the first to speak, "Hello, Ratchet." he said, taking a card from the deck and placing another on on the table, "How did the mission go?"

"I'll explain later," replied Ratchet, "The general needs us to get on one of the evac ships, and go to the _Quantum Leap._"

The rest of the Q-Force looked at him, their eyebrows arched in confusion.

"I'll explain on the shuttle. Right now, we need to get going."

Still slightly confused, but nonetheless compliant, the occupants of the tent(after waking up Qwark, who jerked upright and hastily wiped a stream of drool from the corner of his mouth) quickly grabbed some supplies and left for the evacuation shuttles. Having been in shelter most of the day, most of them had to hold a hand up to keep the bright sunlight out of their eyes.

Due the the tinted visor of his helmet, Ratchet had no such trouble, and spotted the evacuation shuttles without difficulty; medium sized ships with a cylindical cabin, ending in a cone-shaped cockpit on one end and four ion-drive engines on the other. The wings were rather short, used for stablization more than anything else. Three 'legs' served as landing gear, and underside liquid-fuel boosters were used to lift the craft off the ground and allowed it to hover if needed. A ramp extended down just behind the cockpit.

After a short walk across the dry plot, the group arrived at the nearest ship, and walked in single file up the loading ramp. The interior of the ship was seperated into compartments, much like a hallway with many small rooms. Even with walls between the Q-Force and the other passengers, it was still quite noisy.

Due to the size of the group, the Q-force would need to use two rooms; Ratchet, Sasha, and Clank in one room, and Qwark, Al, Skidd, and Helga in another.

After seating themselves on the circular bench inside their compartment, Clank and Sasha lookedat Ratchet, their faces inquiring.

Sensing their intent, Ratchet began to explain what happened.

"Well, you know the meteor that hit the palace?"

They nodded.

"It wasn't really a meteor. Take a look at this," he continued, revealing a small holoscreen, which promptly grew.

He then took off his helmet and removed a small camera on the right side, plugging it into a slot on the holoscreen.

The screen flicked on, displaying a view of Ratchet's mission from a first-person perspective. The team he escourted trudged across the palteau for a while, then came upon the impact site. After some short dialogue about how toget throughthe object's shell, it cracked and split open, revealing the machine inside, which proceeded to transmutate the research team. The recording cut off after that.

Even after the clip ended, Clank and Sasha were still staring at the holoscreen.

"What... what was that thing?" managed Sasha.

"Appearantly anotherone of Dr. Nefarious' insane plans at galactic domination."

"But was he not destroyed when his biobliterator exploded?" said Clank.

"He must have escaped somehow; probably through teleportation," responded Ratchet, remembering the doctor's flight from the _Leviathan._

As soon as he finished, the holoscreen reactivated, displaying an arial view of the plateau, the general and his troops marching across it. In the distance, a tall figure was visible.

* * *

General Chrome held up his hand, signaling for the following Rangers to stop. He looked around; there was a rock formation to the left of the group, otherwise the dry plateau was featureless. A floating camera hovered above the scene, ensuring that the battle to come would be televised. Nefarious' machine loomed on the distance, growing ever larger as it approached the area. 

"H-12 through J-32!" he shouted.

15 Rangers, one-third of the entire group, turned and saluted.

"Get into those rocks, and wait for the target to pass them. When it does, open fire on the rear."

With a short "Yes, sir!" they left to their positions.

The walker was getting closer, its thudding footsteps could be felt through the ground.

Chrome turned to the remaining Rangers and shouted, "Take up firing positions! Anti-armor!"

The front row of Rangers knelt, and the rows furthur back remained standing. All of them set their arm-cannons to armor-piercing beams.

The machine was closing in faster than before, and was now within a hundred yards.

"Fire on my signal!" shouted General Chrome.

The target was now 75 yards away.

Some of the Rangers twitched nervously.

50 yards.

"Steady..." ordered the general.

25 yards.

The machine passed the rocks concealing the other troops.

"NOW!"

In an instant, dozens of searing red beams sliced throught the air, accompanied by rockets from the Decimator General Chrome carried. The Rangers kept up the bombardment, blasting their arm-cannons as fast as they could, enveloping the machine, which was now still, in thick smoke.

"Hold your fire!" shouted Chrome, satisfied that the target was, at the very least, severely damaged.

The wind began to pick up, blowing the smoke to the southeast.

If any of the Rangers had jaws, they would havedropped comfortably on the ground; the machine stood completely undamaged, surrounded by a luminescent field of green energy.

There was a stunned silence.

"An omega-class disintegraton field..." whispered general Chrome despairedly.

Several tentacles emerged from the sides of the machine, their clawed tips snapping menacingly.

"RETREAT!" shouted one of the Rangers, turning and sprinting away.

One of the tentacles flew with blinding speed at the fleeing Ranger, catching him around the middle and pulling him screaming and flailing to the machine's body, drawing him into it, ithe surface rippling like the surface of a pond.

After a moment of silence, the walker produced a deafening roar, and two new tentacles emerged from it, each tipped with what looked like a large laser cannon.

At this sight, the remaining Rangers suddenly remembered how to use their legs a,d broke from their paralyzed state, running from the machina as quickly as they could, some occasionally looking back to fire a blast from their arm-cannon.

A Ranger running next to General Chrome turned to him and asked, "What the hell did that thing do to I-10!"

"From what I've learned in the military," he answered, "that walker can modify itself using nanotechnology, meaning it can absorb and adapt new weapons systems to itself."

Right on que, blazing red beams of energy issued from the machine's new weapons. The continueous lasers impacted on the ground just behind the Rangers and continued forward, melting the ground into glass and burning away ten Rangers, leaving nothin but molten slag where thay once stood.

The walker's tentacles whipped about; some grabbed the fleeing rangers and flung them hundreds of feet through the air, others smashed the helpless troops as they slammed into the ground.

Soon, General Chrome was the last soldier standing, and found himself dodging multiple tentacle and laser attacks, thought he couldn't forever, and was eventuallypinned to the ground by three of the tentacles. A fourthreached down and took the Decimator from his hands, pulling it to the body and absorbing it.

After another roar, a large turret appeard on the top of the machine, turned to aim at the general, and fired.

The ensuing explosion sealed the walker's victory.

* * *

There ya go, hope you like it. Make sure to review! 


	15. Chapter 15

Seeing that you probably skip the pre-chapter jabber, I suggest you read this one's. A few semi-important things are in there.

Hey fans! Sorry about the long wait; so many new distractions have come up. As always, Halo 2 online has eaten many hours of my life (GT is Sarge 3000), I just got Mario Kart DS, and I can't stop playin' it (my friend code is 266350081839 for anyone else who can play online), and I've become addicted to a wecomic called Two Kinds. Look it up at 2kinds dot com.You'll thank yourself for it.

Anyway, with my long and advertisement-riddled explanation done,

Chapter 15

* * *

The compartment was in a paralyzed silence; even the outside commotion seemed to be muffled. 

Ratchet, Sasha, and Clank continued to stare at the holoscreen in shock, completely transfixed by the events that had unfolded. So transfixed that they didn't hear the door slide open behind them.

Skidd stepped into the compartment.

"Hey guys, do any of ya know where the bathroom is, 'cause I gotta'-" he stopped, noticing thier downcast faces.

"Whoa, did you guys see, like, a ghost or somethin'?"

He glaced down at the holoscreen.

"Hey, HV! What's on?"

Skidd sat on the bench, bumping into Ratchet as he did.

"Oof, Skidd, this isn't-" started Ratchet, but the Rilgarian cut him off.

"Shh, quiet bro! Somethin's happening," replied Skidd, jabbing his thumb at the holoscreen.

Ratchet resumed looking at the screen; Skidd was right about one thing, something _was_ happening.

Nefarious' walker was on the move again, but not an a direction that was expected; instead of heading to a population center, it was moving toward the ruins of the palace.

"What's it doing now?" asked Sahsa.

"I'm not sure. We'll just have to wait and see," answered Ratchet.

They would not have to wait long. The huge machine reached the palace's remains in a few long strides. To everyone's confusion, it lowered its body to the ground at the edge of the palace's charred ruins. It reached its tentacles into the field of rubble, each one grabbing a steel girdir or some other large chunk of metal, and pulling it back to the main body.

Ratchet, Clank, and Sasha looked at each other in bewilderment. Skidd continued to watch the screen.

After about five minutes of collecting debris, the walker began to change. It's main body seemed to inflate, bulging and thinning in random places. It then settled into what looked like a large bubble.

The compartment's occupants remained silent.

Without warning, the 'bubble' erupted into a cylindrical spire, which shot hundreds of feet into the air. The former walker's legs quadrupled in length and slammed into the ground, throwing up plumes of dirt and clay, anchoring themselves deep beneath the surface. Thick cables shot out from about half-way up the spire, sticking into the ground. Metal panels formed between the cables, forming a cone-shaped structure around the spire. All the while, the tentacles continued to collect metal debris.

A thunderous sound caught the floating camera's attention, and in paned its view upward. A dark cloud was gathering at the top of the spire, glowing with an internal red light.

Suddenly, the cloud spread like a shockwave,expanding across the normally blue sky with frightening speed. Red lightning began to rain down from the cloud, slicing through the air like lasers.

The holoscreen flashed red, then faded to static.

"Whoa... awesome movie! Those are some cool effects!" said Skidd, standing up from the bench.

Ratchet smacked his forehead, "Skidd, that's no movie! It's the news! This is all happening on Marcadia right now!"

"Oh," replied Skidd, "I knew that."

"Wait a minute, General Chrome said something about meteor impacts on other plants throughout the galaxy," said Ratchet, "But that would mean... ohhhh shit!"

He hastily stepped over to the holoscreen and pushed a button, changing it to channel 64.

The sound of explosions and gunfire greeted their ears.

A reporter stood in front of the camera, "This is Darla Gratch reporting from Metropolis on the planet Kerwan. For the past few hours, a machine of unknown origin has been attacking the city, destroying a large percentage of buildings, and transforming all living creatures it finds into robots. Reports say that it arose from a meteorite that had impacted in the city's industral district earlier today.Local military forces have been unable to so much as scratch the attacker, due to a powerful energy field surrounding it. Similar attacks are occuring on the planets Rilgar, Marcadia, Veldin, and many others at this very moment. We will keep this newscast running as long as possible. Darla Gratch, Channel 64 News."

"Whoa, dude, I need to tell the other guys about this," said Skidd, opening the door, exiting the compartment, and sliding the door shut behind him.

"Well, any ideas as to how to stop those things?" asked Sasha, guesturing at the Holovid.

"None at all," responded Ratchet, "Those things are surrounded by omega-class disintigration fields. No weapon can get throught them, not even a nuclear blast."

"Well, that may not not be entirely true..." piped in Clank.

Ratchet and Sasha looked at the little robot, intrigued by his statement.

"Go on," said Ratchet.

"Well, an omega-class disintigration field is powered by a large generator, and takes agreat amount of energy to produce. The field produces a specific wavelength of radio waves that would cause interferance in the generator's sensitive equipment, rendering it useless. Due to this inconvenience, the generator must be located a large distance away from the field."

"So, what your saying is that we need to find and shut down the generators that keep those shields up," said Sasha after a short momet of thinking.

"Precisely."

"Sounds easy," started Ratchet, "Except for the fact that we don't know where they are and have an entire galaxy to search through, but the the best thing to do first would probably be to find Nefarious. He sent these things here, and where we can find him, we'll probably find those generators."

"But how will we find him?" asked Clank

"Um... well... I haven't quite figured that out yet," responded Ratchet, placing a hand on the back of his neck and grinning nervously.

"Don't worry, we'll discuss it more with the Galactic Fleet commaders once we get to the _Quantm Leap_," said Sasha, "We'll come up with something."

* * *

Meanwhile, back on planet Marcadia...

Nefarious' enourmous structure continued to spread the thick blanket of clouds across the planet,smothering the sunlight all but completely.Several small towns had already been overtaken by them, their entire populations turned into unflinchingly loyal robotic servants by the bolts of energy that descended from the cloud.

But that wasn't all. Nefarious had put one more feature into his diobolical contraption.

A large glob of silvery liquid-metal the size of a small cargo ship began to bud off from the main tower, droping to the ground with a resounding _thud_. A dozen more followed suit.

The globs began to become more recognizable; features such as wings, fins, and engines solidifying into place. Soon, thirteen ships had taken shape, ramps extending from large cargo holds.

Dozens of smaller globs began to fall from the spire, each hitting the ground and taking the shape of a Galactic Ranger. The only difference from the realRangers was that these were jet black.

Numbering at least one hundred, they piled into the newly made ships. After closing and sealing the ramps, the ships blasted off into space, leaving nothing but scorch marks as evidence that they had been there.

Their destination? The Galactic Fleet's new flagship, the _Quantum leap._

_

* * *

_

And there we have it, chapter 15!

Hmm, doI smell an actionsequence coming up? Just wait and see!


	16. Chapter 16

Whew, lots of stuff is happening right now. I just got settled into my new house, which is a huge upgrade from the old. We haven't had cable for the past week, so I haven't been able to use the internet (we have charter).

One more thing: I got an X-Box 360! Sweetness! I'm really enjoying my new games (Bejeweled 2, Call of Duty 2, Condemned (scary), Bejeweled 2,and Geometry Wars).

Alright, that's enough bragging for one day,

Ch. 16

* * *

The _Quantum Leap _sat in high-orbit above the planet Marcadia. Over 400 feet long and having two fore-mounted MAC guns and a cargo capacityof 50 Zephyr-class light fighters, it was easily the largest and most heavily-armed ship in the entire fleet. One feature that set it apart from the rest of the fleet's heavy cruisers was the ability to open warp-portals at any time they were needed; normally they required several hours to gather the required energy.It's warp generators were the standard model, but the power source they used was experimental; using incredibly powerful magnetic fields and a micro-fine subatomic filter, it was able to funnel a near infinite stream of energy from the quantum foam, the base material of all subatomic particles. 

The ship's commanding officer was admiral Vega Shroud. At 6'5" in height, he was abnormally tall for a Veldinian lombax. That, and his unusual color pattern, tan with black stripes, made him easily identifiable in a crowd, and his hard-set, penetrating brown eyes commanded immediate respect among those he led. Various scars marred his face, representing his 15 years of distinguished military service; a small piece of his left ear was missing, a thin white line devoid of fur ran from his right temple in a crescent-shape down to the top of his nose. He sat in the captain's chair of the _Quantum Leap_, overseeing the actions of his crew.

"Sir," a stout Rilgarian crewman turned from the flashing control panel he manned to face the admiral, "There's a group of passenger ships en route from Marcadia. They say they need lodging for about 300 people."

_"Must be those refugees I was told about,"_ thought Shroud, "Very well. Transmit them the docking codes, have residential decks C through H prepared, and send a message to Medbay. Some of those people may need medical attention."

"Aye, sir."

* * *

Meanwhile, inside one of the shuttles... 

"Approxomate time to docking: five minutes," said an automated voice over the PA.

The occupants of the ship stumbled around their compartments, either waking sleeping companions or gathering what belongings they had taken with them. It was still as noisy as ever, and the entire shuttle was filled with the incoherant buzz of dozens of conversations blending together.

Ratchet, Sasha, and Clank remained in their compartment, gathering what little equipment and clothing they had taken with them.

"So, who's in charge on that ship?" asked Ratchet, jabbing his thumb in the general direction of the _Quantum Leap_.

"Admiral Vega Shroud, one of the most respected ship captains in the fleet. I used to serve under his command until I was promoted to captain of the _Phoenix_," replied Sasha.

"Hmm... you know, I've been wondering," began Ratchet, "How exactly did you become captain of the _Phoenix_? I've heard rumors that you need to do something pretty damn major to reach that rank."

Sasha put a hand on her chin and thought for a second, "Well, if I remember correctly-"

The PA interrupted her, "Proceeding with docking. Stand-by for unloading."

Sasha gave an ironic grin, "That seems to happen a lot, doesn't it? Oh well, I'll finish explaining once we get situated in our quarters."

"Ah, c'mon, it can't take that long to explain," pressed Ratchet, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She turned to him with a playful smile, placing her hand on his, "It will, and you can wait. It'll only be a few minutes."

"Oh, fine," he took firm hold of her hand, pulling her close, and placing his other arm around her waist, "Just make sure you don't forget."

"I won't, don't worry about it," Sasha responded, giggling slightly.

"Ahem." The couple looked down at the little robot that had just 'cleared his throat'.

The entire ship was nearly silent. Empty.

They quickly broke apart, blushing furiously. "Whoops. I... uh... think we'd better get off the ship before it leaves the _Quantum Leap_," said Ratchet, sounding slightly embarrased.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's go," said Sasha, taking her suitcase from an overhead compartment.

Their belongings in hand, the three walked through the isle of the shuttle, making their way to the door. Ratchet and Sasha walked hand in hand, or rather, Ratchet holding Sasha's hand, and Sasha's hand being completely covered.

_"Hmm, that went better than I expected. I was never the best at that mushy stuff, but I think I'm gettin' the hang of it,"_ thought Ratchet, smiling inwardly to himself. Flirting still gave him a 'butterflies in the stomach' feeling, but he figured he should get used to it. Sure, it sometimes sounded like a cheesy holovid, but that wasn't always a bad thing.

They came to the shuttle's airlock doors, which opened automatically, whirring with the sound of the mechanical componants inside.

The docking bay of the _Quantum Leap_ was rather large; the entire room was approximately 70 feet long by 20 feet wide, with a docking port at every ten-foot interval. The walls were a drab steel grey with flourescent lights in two rows on the ceiling. There was an oval-shaped door at the left end of the room, through which refugees from Marcadia were being directed.

Being at the rear of the crowd and as short as they were, it was very difficult for the small group to see what was beyond the teeming mass of people, so they simply followed the direction that the crowd was moving.

After a short while, the majority of the crowd had filed through the door, and Ratchet, Sasha, and Clank could see beyond it; a 200-foot long hallway extended before them, many smaller halls branching off from the main one. The shuttle passengers were being funneled down the various halls by Galactic Ranger guards.

As the group came up to the Rangers, one turned to them and said, "Hey, Sarge. Good to see ya. The admiral had special rooms prepared for you and the rest of the Q-Force. The others are already there."

_"I like this admiral so far,"_ thought Ratchet, "Great.Where are they?"

"Just follow me. I'll take you guys there," replied the Ranger, starting down the main hall and motioning for them to follow.

* * *

Back at the docking bay... 

A group of five Galactic Rangersremained in the docking bay on their daily patrols, one leaning against the far wall, another pacing the length of the room. The rest simply stood at their posts.

"(sigh)... hey, J-14, ya know how long until our shift is over?" asked the one pacing the floor.

"Oh, about another hour give or take," answered the one leaning on the wall.

"Great. Out of all the jobs in the ship, we get the most boring-"

A small computer screen on the wall began to beep.

"What the?" One of the Rangers walked over and examined the screen.

"What's it say?" asked another.

"Looks like we've got more incoming ships. They're transmitting the same docking codes as the last batch of ships that arrived, so they're probably just some straglers. I'll go ahead and give them permission to dock."

The Ranger typed something, and with a beep, a green light appeared on each airlock door.

The portal directly in front of the small group of Rangers began to hiss, indicating that one of the ships had begun its docking procedure. The group took a few steps back to give the exiting passengers some room.

Only, when the door opened, there where no passengers. Three-dozen robotic figures stood in the shuttle's compartment. They were nearly identical to the Rangers stationed in the docking bay, though the new arrivals were jet-black and had decidedly sharper edges.

"What are these?" asked J-14, turning to the rest of his patrol, "New Ranger design models or something?"

The sharp whine of charging weaponry drew the group's attention back to the shuttle passengers, all of which had raised their arm-cannons. The weapons' firing chambers glowed electric blue.

The Rangers simply stared out of shock. "I don't think so," one said. It was all he could manage.

The group was then bombarded with burning cobalt energy blasts, and was gone.

* * *

A map of the _Quantum Leap_'s compartments was displayed on a holoscreen on the bridge. One room in particular was flashing red. 

The crewman attending to the screen turned to admiral Shroud, "Sir, weapons' fire has been detected in the docking bay. There's been no word from the patrol stationed there."

The admiral turned to the same crewman, "Open the comm. channel to the docking bay."

The crewman pushed a few buttons. "Done, sir."

Vega stood from the captain's chair, picking up a microphone from the dashboard in from of him as he did.

"Patrol 13-Alpha, what's your statis, over," he said into the device.

Nothing but static.

"Patrol 13-alpha, can you read me?"

Still nothing.

Shroud set the microphone back onto the dashboard. "No response," he said.

"Should I send a patrol of Rangers to investate?" asked a crewman.

"No," the admiral responded, "We've already seen how effective a group of Rangers has been." He pushed a sequence of keyes on the dashboard, opening a door to his right.

"I'll go check it out," he said

Taking long strides, he steped into the room. The inside walls were covered with weapon wracks, holding everything from small laser pistols to all three variations of the R.Y.N.O. A Gadgetron Armor Vendor was located in the corner of the room, its selection screen glowing softly.

He stepped onto the vendor's platform and punched in his selection; Magnaplate armor, imported from the Bogon Galaxy. A cylindical compartment rose around him, and, after a few seconds, lowered, revealing the admiral in his new attire. He looked up at the various weapons and put his hand on his chin, thinking of which one to choose. Looking to his left, he spotted a Quantum Whip and Decimator. He picked up the weapons and lookedthem over; both had full ammo.

He put the whip in a holster on his waist, the Decimator across his back,and left the armory. He turned to the same Rilgarian crewman he had spoken to earlier.

"Leutenant," he said.

"Sir?

"You're in charge here until I return. Make sure nothing goes wrong."

"Aye, sir."

And with that, Vega Shroud left the bridge.

* * *

It had been quite a while, and Ratchet, Sasha, and Clank had still not reached their quarters. Ratchet was becoming impatient, and the fact that the Ranger that led themseemed to have no idea where they were going didn't help. 

"We're lost aren't we?" said Ratchet flatly, lowering his eyebrows and crossing his arms over his chest.

"No, of course not!" responded the Ranger hastily, "Were just taking a... uh... scenic detour, that's all."

"Scenic? How is this scenic?" Ratchet's voice took a more exasperated tone. "This hall looks exactly like the dozen other halls we've been through already."

"Alright, alright," said the Ranger, putting his hand in the air dismissively, "It's this way...(I think)."

"What was that last part?"

"Oh, nothing."

The group rounded a corner and came to an abrupt halt, nearly running straight into a tall, heavily armed lombax. He stood at least a foot, if not more, taller than Ratchet. He wore Magnaplate armor and carried a Decimator and Plasma Whip.

Ratchet couldn't help but wonder who this imposing stranger was, but got his answer quickly enough.

"Greatings, admiral," said Sasha, straightening her stance and saluting. Ratchet, Clank, and the Rangerfollowed suit.

"At ease, no need for formalities right now," responded Shroud.

"If I may ask, why do you look like you're prepared to get into a firefight?"

"Gunshots have been detected in the docking bay, and the ranger patrol stationed there has not radioed in, so Im investigating the situation."

At the word 'gunshots,' Ratchet's ears perked up.

"Gunshots you say?" he said, "Sounds interesting. Any chance I could tag along?"

"Ah, you're Ratchet, aren't you?" responded the admiral, "I don't see why not; I might be able to use the help of an experienced soldier."

"Are you sure about this, Ratchet?" asked Sasha, slightly concerned.

"Don't worry about me, Sash; it is my job afterall."

He gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"

* * *

And there you have it, Chapter 16; one of the longest yet. I hope you guyslikeit.

Just so you know, I might be wrong about the magnaplate armor being from Bogon. It's been a while, soI can't remember.

As always, R+R!


	17. Chapter 17

For anyone who's wondered, yes I did change my name. It was suggested by a friend of mine, and is also my Red vs. Blue forum account name, and Mario Kart: DS nickname.

w00t! 1000 hits! Thanks to all of my dedicated readers! Wouldn't be here without ya!

Anyway...

Chapter 17

* * *

Ratchet and Shroud cautiously walked down the empty corridors that led to the docking bay. The halls had been evacuated for good reason; when the two lombaxes arrived at the docking bay's door, they found that it had been melted away into a bubbling pool of molten slag. Inside, the remains of several Galactic Rangers sat pitifully on the floor, exposed wires still crackling with electricity and small ducts slowly dripping transmission fluid and oil. Scorch marks littered the floor and walls. 

It was obvioust that whatever had caused all the damage was now loose in the ship.

The admiral pushed a button mounted on his armor's gauntlet, "We have hostiles loose on the ship," he radioed to the bridge, "Seal all blast doors to sectors G, V, and D."

Ratchet turned to him, holding the Decimator over his shoulder, "You sure those doors will hold, sir? They totalled that one pretty easily."

"Dont worry about it. Those blast doors are made of a five-inch thick carbide-steel alloy. Nothings getting through them short of a 30-millimeter heavyplasma cannon."

Ratchet shrugged, "If you say so." He turned to look down a corridor, "Guess we should get to searching the halls, then."

"Right," said Shroud, "Take the East wing. I'll go down the West. Radio in if you find anything."

"Fine by me."

* * *

Ratchet strode down the silent corridor, ears perked, listening for the slightest sound and watching for anything out of the ordinary. So far, nothing but the steady hum of the ceiling lights. 

He rounded a corner, aiming his new Decimator down the hall just in case. Seeing nothing, he let it drop back to his side.

He let out a sigh, drooping his eyelids slightly. This was turning out to be more boring than he had origionally thought it would be.

As if triggered by his thoughts, the hall flashed into darkness for a split second. At first, he thought it was simply his imagination playing tricks on him, but, when the lights flickered once more, he was positive that it was not.

Adrenaline began to course through his viens, dialating his pupils and raising his heartrate. Now more aware, he noticed what looked like black stains on the carpeted floor, leading through a doorway labled ENGINE MATINENCE.

He walked to the marks and knelt, swiping a gloved finger over one, smudging it. They looked like oily bootprints. He was reminded of the oil from the remains of the destroyed Rangers.

Being wary of any movement, he opened to door, it's un-lubricated hinges creaking slightly. The interior of the room was filed with pipes, valves, conduits and computer consoles. Several pipes spat thin streams of steam from slightly loose junctions, making the room very hot and humid; enough so to fog up the visor on Ratchet's helmet. He adjusted his armor's tempurature setting, cooling himself and de-fogging the visor.

A loud _clang_ to his left caught him by surprise, and he reflexively turned and pulled his Decimator's trigger, sending a missile flying into a large pipe. The ensuing explosion released a cascade of steam, forcing Ratchet to jump away to avoid the stream of scalding vapor.

Metallic footsteps sounded behind Ratchet. Being more careful about his weapon, he turned to see what caused them, but the cloud of steam that filled the room blocked all vision farther than five feet.

A sharpblow to the back of his head made him lose balance and stumble forward. Recovering his bearings, Ratchet turned around to see a vaguely humanoid silouette jump down in front of him from a pipe overhead.

Being to close to the enemyto safely use hisDecimator, Ratchet slung the weapon over his back and equiped his Omnywrench, jumping and bringing it down as hard as he could.

To Ratchet's amazement, a robotic, three-fingered hand simply snatched the wrench out of the air and tossed it aside, and Ratchet went with it, slamming against a vat of pressurized gas.

"Ugh..." Ratchet slid to the floor in a sitting postion, stunned from the impact. He forced his head upward to see a glowing blue spot in the cloud of steam, accompanied by a high-pitched whine.

Ratchet dove to the left just in time to avoid the plasma blasts that followed. He rolled out of the dive and pulled the Decimator from his back all in one fluid motion, skidding to a crouched halt and pulling the weapon's trigger.

The rocket flew straight and true, streaking toward the target with such speed that it had no time to react. A satisfying explosion and clattering of metal parts ensued, and Ratchet couldn't help but crack a smile. The sound of an explosion was always a welcome one.

"Vega calling Ratchet," came a voice over his radio, "I'm hearing explosions coming from the East wing. What's going on down there?"

"I think I found whatever made its way onto the ship," answered Ratchet, "I took care of it easily enough though, so nothing to wor-"

**_Fwooom! Fwooom!_**

"Gah!" Ratchet's face contorted as he wasstruck by two cobalt beams of energy, one hitting him on the inside of his knee, knocking his leg out from underneath him, and the other square in the middle of his back, throwing him face-first on the floor. They would have burned holes straight through him had he not been wearing his Aegis Mark V armor, but they still put him in a great deal of pain.

Wasting no time, Ratchet threw himself to the left and behind a wall of pipes just in time to dodge more weapons fire that impacted where his head had been only moments before. _"How'd that thing survive?" _he thought, _"My missile hit it right in the face!"_

He leaned around the corner and spotted the hostile, now more clearly defined, as the steam cloud had thinned some: It stood around six-feet tall and had the shape of a Galactic Ranger, except that it was nearly pitch-black, and its corners and edges were decidedly sharper, and its limbs more block-like.

He pulled the trigger on the Decimator and watched the rocket fly at and hit the target, the explosion sheeringsteel and tearing wires, scattering small bits of metal everywhere. The only part of it left intact was the left leg, the end of which sparked andcrackled with electricity.

"Okay," said Ratchet, exhaling sharply, "That time, I'm _sure_ I got him." With that, he turned to leave the room, letting the Decimator fall leisurely at his side.

And that's when the lights flickered and died.

* * *

Several of the intruders stood in the hall. One of them held a fistful a wires, obviously torn from the large hole that had been punched in the wall. Power had been cut to the entire East wing, bathing it in nearly pitch blackness and giving the boarders complete concealment. Theirvisible lightsight mode was useless in this situation, so they switched to infrared.

Earlier, they had seen their target, a short, heavily armed lombax, enter the mateinance room. They decided too set a trap for him as he exited; they lined up on both sides of the door, blocking off the hallway on both sides, and waited in the darkness.

The sound ofbooted feet scraping against the floorbecame audible, and the robotic hostiles raised their weapons, ready to obliterate the lombax as soon as he stepped into view.

* * *

Well there, Chapter 17. Yeah it's short, I know.

Bleh, I dont really like this chapter as much as the others. I'll leave it to you guys to review it.


	18. Chapter 18

Once again, sorry for the late update. I'll admit it: I'm a lazy bastard. 'Been playin' to much_ Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn _and _Sly 3._

Oh, and whoever flamed me (I'm looking at you, Me Ernie), I've disabled anonymous reviews, so if you want to try it again, you're going to have to man-up and actually sign in. Bring it, punk.; I'm ready for ya.

Okay, back to what the fans want.

Chapter 18

* * *

Ratchet's body ached, his skin sore and blistering and his fur scorched and blackened from the intense heat of the plasma blasts he had endured. That, and the red "Ammuntion Depleted" light flashing on the side of his Decimator ensured that we was in no condition to continue a fight. 

"Damn. Wasn't fully loaded." he said to no one in particular, trying to focus on something other than the burning pain that throbbed on his leg and back.

He removed his right glove, his sweat-covered hand cooling at its sudden exposure to air. He leaned forward slightly, bending his arm back and placing his hand on the area of his armor where he had been hit. It was still warm, and there was a large, concave dent in it from the plasma blasts.

"Those beams were pretty powerful. No wonder I'm still feeling the effects."

After making sure his injuries weren't serious, he addresed the current matter: the darkness. He squinted in the inky blackness, doing his best to make out anydetails of the room he stood in, and failing.To the Lombax's misfortune, the old flight helmet he woredidn't have any special modes of vision like infrared, or even a torchlight. If he found anymore enimes, or vice-versa, while in his injured state, there was no way in hell he'd make it out in one piece, especially when he couldn't even see his own hand in front of his face.

He decided to radio for some back-up.

"Ratchet calling Shroud. Can you read me?" he said into a small reciever on his wrist.

"Loud and clear," responded the admiral, "Do you have anything to report?"

"Appearantly, there are more intruders than I thought. I just dealt with two of them, but I'm out of ammo and the electricity's gone out, so it's too dark for me to see anything. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm gonna need a little help getting out of here, justin case I meet any more of our 'guests.'".

"Alright. Just tell me where you are, and I'll be right there."

"I'm in the engine matinence room." A small stream of steam escaped from a pipe behind Ratchet with a hiss, making him jump, "And from the looks of it, it's gonna need some repairs later."

"Noted. Vega out."

With that, the Admiral flicked on the torchlight mounted on his helmet and proceeded to the East Wing.

* * *

Ratchet's description of the East Wing had been accurate; the entire hallway was pitch black, save the narrow cone of white light provided by the Vega's torchlight. It wasn't much, but it would have to do. 

Admiral Shroudstepped carefully down the wide hall, watching for any signs of movement and searching for the engine room. He checked the map display on the inside of his helmet; not much farther now.

He rounded a corner, scanning his field of vision and finding nothing but more darkness. Even so, his hand instinctively reached for the plasm whip hanging from his belt. He checked the map one more time; the engine room was only a few yards ahead.

It was at that moment that something caught his eye; a slight glint of metal at the far end of the flashlight's range. Stepping a little closer, the light revealed a tall robot.

_"What the hell? I didn't send any Rangers in here,"_ Vega thought, advancing on the robot and finding that there were several, all gathered around a door.

"Hey, what are-" he began, but stopped himself mid-sentance. There was something odd about these Rangers; he'd never seen any like them before. The colors and limb shapes were much different than any that he had seen before.

A split second later, he found himself weaving back and forth, dodging blue blasts of laser fire. His hand fumbled for the plasma whip at his waist, eventually finding it and closing the gloved fingers tightly aroundits hilt, pressing the activation button and revealing the shimmering stream of crackling orange plasma.

Vega ducked under a second wave of plasma beams, finding an opening in the fiery bolts, and swung the whip in an upward stroke, burning a cut through one of the robots. The unfortunate machine had beensplit vertically, falling into two halves, both still twitching and convulsing intheir death throes. Jolts of electicity momentarily arked between them.

The tall Lombax used the momentum from his swing and brought the whip into a horizontal slash, turning on his heel to follow though.The slash cut another hostile at the waist, which promptly toppled off of its legs, plummeting to the ground and hitting it with what sounded like an amalgam of a clang and a thud.

Unfortunately for Vega, the spin he had executed resulted in his legs crossing awkwardly, and he lost his balance, stumbling forward. He looked up just in time to he a metal fist connect with his stomach, knocking the breath from his lungs and forcing him to his knees. The robot that struck him unclenched its hand and latched it on to the admiral's wrist as he fell, squeezing it with crushing force. Shroud's face contorted as the carpals in his wrist were pulverized by the machine's vice-grip, the intense pain forcing him to open his hand, releasing the whip from its grasp.

"YAAHH!" a loud battlecry issued from behind the robot holding Shroud, and, with a loud clang, it fell backwards onto the ground.

Ratchet stood over the fallen droid, Omnywrench 8000 in hand. He'd struck the robot on the leg, badly deforming it, and causing the machine to loosen its grip on Shroud and fall to the ground. Ratchet raised the wrench high over his head, and brought it down twice on what looked to be the hostile's head, crushing it to pieces with a satisfying crunch.

The remaining robots began to fire their weapons at Ratchet now, the blue beams sizzling through the air with blazing speed. Ratchet did his best to try and dodge them, but he was having trouble moving on his injured leg, though the rush of adrenaline brought on by the battle helped him to ignore it. Despite this, several blasts came dangerously close, and some even glanced off of the edges of his armor.

After performing several sideways flips, the barrage of plasma blasts subsided; the robots' weapons had overheated, and they charged at Ratchet, intent on tackling him to the ground and squeezing the life out of him. The Lombax stood his ground, waiting for the correct moment. When the lead enemy was close enough, Ratchet performed a double jump, landing on the robot's head, and kicked off of it with his good leg, jumping toward the fallen plasma whip.

Unfortunately, the machine's reflexes were faster than Ratchet had expected, as it quickly spun one hundred and eighty degrees, and snatched him out of the air.

"Woahh!" _thud, _"Ung!"

The robot had grabbed Ratchet by the ankle, swung him wide, and slammed him against the wall with jarring force, rattling his bones and knocking him senseless. The Lombax fell heavily to the ground and attempted to prop himself up on his arms, both of which felt like wet noodles. One of the five remaining robots simply kicked him in the side, rolling him onto his back.

"Hey!" called a voice from behind all of the machines. The turned in time to see the plasma whip flying at them, spinning like a giant burning shurikan, and slicing four of them at the waist. The survivor watched the whip return to the extended off-hand ofVega Shroud. Seeing an opportunity, the admiral rushed forward, holding the plasma whip high, ready to slash it down. He did so, but there was one problem: the burning cord of plasma had disappeared. The weapon's power meter read empty.

Vega stood silently for a moment. "Damn cheap energy cells."

A blue bolt of plasma issued from the robot's now cooled weapon, striking the admiral in the chest and sending him flying ten feet down the hallway and leaving a sizzling pit it his armor.

Ratchet sat up from his prostrate position, finding just enough strength to do so. He could do nothing but watch as the hostile blasted Vega, thowing him down the hall, and then began to advance on the prone form of the _Quantum Leap's_ admiral, helpless to do anything about it.

Helplessness. That single thought caused a flame to ignite in Ratchet's stomach; they were about to die at the hands of a single minor enemy, and he could do nothing to prevent it. He reached out with one hand, wanting nothing otherthan to crush the robot in his fist. He clenched his fingers tightly.

At that moment, the hostile machine simply imploded, compacting into a small ball one foot in diameter with the crunch and screech of crushing metal. The steel ball floated in that air until Ratchet unclenched his fist out of shock, and it dropped to the ground with a loud thud.

The Lombax was completely dumbfounded by what had taken place, and was staring at his open palm in amazement.

"What the hell did I just do?" he wondered aloud, continuing to examine his hand.

* * *

Whew, there, Chapter 18 is done. I hope you guys like it; I spent ages on this thing.

Don't forget to leave reviews, or I shall smite thee!


	19. Chapter 19

Hey, everyone. I'm updating a bit earlier than I usually do; bein' a little less lazy ;-). I probably would have updated even sooner if I hadn't bought_ The_ _Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion _and _Metroid Prime: Hunters._ If you have the proper systems, I strongly suggest both of these games. Seriously, buy them.

Anyway...

Chapter 19

* * *

Ratchet felt completely drained of energy; not just tired, or even exhausted, more like someone had cut a hole in him, attatched a hose, and sucked everything out, leaving nothing but a hollow shell. However, somewhere, he found the will to stand upright. The Lombax grappled with the nearly overpowering urge to sleep, and his mind screamed at him to stop walking and just fall to the floor. 

_"Oh, no, not again," _he snapped back to his brain, _"I've passed out way too many times over the past week, so forget it."_

Ratchet fought to stay in control of his heavy limbs, willing them to move forward. His wrist radio had been damaged beyond use during the battle, but, if he remembered correctly, there were intercomms near the blast doors.

"Now, if only I could make it to the main hall," he half-groaned to himself, taking several more lead-footed steps down the dark hallway. Everything he saw seemed to be swirling, stretching and contracting before his eyes, and before Ratchet knew it, he stepped into the lighted main hall and spotted the blast doors, a small control panel on the wall to the left. The Lombax stumbled toward it until he slumped forward onto the wall, using a handrail to support himself.

He reached up with one shaking hand and pusheda red button labled 'Alert'. A blinking red light confirmed that his distress signal had been sent to the ship's bridge.

Ratchet lost all feeling in his limbs, and his eyelids slammed shut, refusing to stay open one moment longer. However, he remained conscious; though just barely.

"Damn you exhaustion," he said quietly, taking a deep breath and exhaling, "you win again."

And that was it, he couldn't stay awake any longer, and drifted off to a deep, peaceful sleep.

* * *

The rest of the Q-Force resided in the quarters provided to them; the main room consisted of a semi-circular sofa with a full circle coffee table. On the table sat a VG9000 game system and several coasters underneath soft drink cans. On the wall hung a 60" holovid screen. Sahsa, Skidd, Qwark, and Helga sat on the sofa, each holding a Mavix Fireball Pro wireless controller, all absorbed in a versus match of _Corona 2_. 

Sasha moved her character to a perch-like tower in the stage thay played in, switching her submachine gun for the laser rifle located in the tower. The Cazar spotted two targets moving along the ground, one attempting to sneak up behind the other.

She scoped the weapon to x10 sight, and fired twice.

_Phoom! Phoom!_

**_"Double Kill!"_** barked the game's announcer as two characters fell limply to the ground. Sasha smirked. Qwark and Skidd groaned and cast her frustrated looks as they waited to respawn.

Seconds later thay were back in the game; only one minute remained.

Helga's character jumped from it's hiding spot and dashed across the open expanse. Sasha quickly scoped her rifle and fired two more times, one shot connecting with her target's foot. Helgas screen flashed red, and the shield indicator began beeping. She ducked behind a rock to let the shields recharge as Sasha reloaded her rifle.

Suddenly, a round black object flew up from a crevice and landed in front of Helga.

_Boom!_

Helga's character was blasted five feet from it's origional position, scoring Qwark another point.

"Vat?.!" yelled helga, "Vat just happened?"

"I threw a grenade in your face, that's what!" responded Qwark boistrously with a smug look on his face.

"I wouldn't celebrate just yet, Qwark. You're still ten kills down and there's only thirty seconds left," Sasha said, brushing a bit of stray hair from her face and keeping her eyes on the screen.

Qwark frowned, "Yeah, well... that's what you think."

"Heh, yep, it is."

"Hey, Qwark?" said Skidd.

"What?"

"You need to keep an eye on your radar, dude."

"Why's that?"

_Crack! _Qwark got his answer; Skidd had snuck up behind him and hit Qwark's character in the back of the head with the butt of a submachine gun, killing it instantly.

"What the-?" sputtered Qwark.

"I tried to tell ya bro," Skidd laughed.

**_"Ten seconds remaining!"_** barked the announcer again.

Several hurried potshots were taken from impossible distances at the sound of the digital voice that issued from the holovid's speakers. A lucky few connected with their targets, but had no significant effect, not even denting the shields that surrounded the characters they had been fired at.

**_"Game over!"_**

The final score: Sasha in first place with 21 kills (many of them headshots with the laser rifle), Skidd in second with 17, and Qwark and Helga tied for third with 11 kills each.

Qwark dropped his controller on the table and pointed an accusing finger at the victiorious Cazar, "No fair!" he bellowed, "You must've cheated! How else would you win three matches in a row?"

Sasha merely smirked and shook her head.

"Would you keep it down, Qwark? We're all in the same room; you don't need to imitate a megaphone," said Al. He was sitting at a small round table. The computer expert and Clank had each pulled up a chair to the table and started a game of Bogon Chess.

Qwark crossed his arms and looked grumpy.

Sasha checked her watch; its glow-in-the-dark face revealed that their Lombax friend had been gone for no less than 3 hours. They had all lost track of time in their game playing.

"You know, Ratchet's been gone for a while," said Sasha, looking anxiously at the door, "I wonder what's happening."

"I would not worry, Captain," started Clank, advancing a swampfly piece one space forward on the chess board, "Ratchet has been in many tight spots over the past few years, and he has always pulled through reasonably intact. I am sure that he will be fine."

Stomping footsteps were heard running hurriedly down the hallway outside of the door of the Q-Force's quarters.

"What was all that?" asked Al.

"Eh, probaly nothing," responded Qwark, waving his three-fingered hand dismissively, "Let's play one more match of _Corona 2_," he pointed at Sasha, "And no cheating!"

"You know guys, I'm gonna just sit this one out; I don't really feel like video games right now," said the Cazar, angling her head sideways and looking at the ground.

"But we need a forth player!" said Skidd. He looked over at the small round table baside the sofa, "Hey, Al, get over here, dude; let's see what you can do."

"Sorry Skidd, I'm a bit busy right now," responded Al.

Clank moved a blargian snagglebeast piece six spaces forward, "Check and mate."

"What?" blurted Al, quickly snapping his head back to look at the chess board; the small silver robot was right; Al's leader piece was trapped.

"Eh, nevermind. I'll be right there Skidd."

The former shop owner stood from the wheeled chair he sat on and plopped down on the end of the sofa, picking up a vacant controller and slouching forward slightly.

Sasha stood from her seat, "You guys go ahead and play. I'm, um... going to go for a walk."

"Alright, suit yourse--Oh there's _no way _you made that shot!" yelled Qwark, pointing a gloved finger at the holovid as the game character he controlled had three bullets planted in its forehead and fell face-first to the ground.

The standing Cazar rolled her eyes and stepped through the doorway into the hall, squinting as the bright light from the flourescent bulbs entered her pupils and hit her retinas, a stark contrast from the darkened room she had emerged from.

"Okay, the docking bay should be this way," she said to herself, speaking her thoughts aloud. Three hours had been too long for her tastes, and, for some reason, she thought that the stumbling sounds outside the door were something she should investigate, though she wasn't sure why. Woman's intuition perhaps.

After walking down the corridor for several minutes, a group of figures came into view at the other end, rushing quickly toward Sasha's position. She squinted, attempting to make out some details; it was a group of Galactic Rangers. They were in a hurry, and the one on the lead was carrying something. It looked a little like...

"Ratchet!" blurted Sasha, a few decibles louder then she had intended. The Cazar picked up her speed and ran down the hallway, quickly closing the distance between her and the group of Rangers, who slowed to a stop at her sudden appearance.

"What happened? Is he okay?" said Sasha, doing her best to keep her composure, but still letting some worry slip out into her voice. One of the Rangers had Ratchet slung over his right soldier, the Lombax's tail twitching slightly every so often. A faint, raspy, familiar sound emanated from behind the Ranger's back.

"Wait, is he... snoring?"

"Yes ma'am," replied the Ranger, "The bridge recieved a distress call and dispatched us to investigate We found him asleep in the hallway past the blast doors. No clue why though; we couldn't find a scratch on him."

"Well that's good to know," said Sasha, letting out a small, relieved sigh, "What about the Admiral?"

"Er... he isn't in such good shape. He suffered some severe burns to his chest.Either way, we should get them back to the medbay to check for internal injuries; just in case."

"Yeah, good idea. They look like they could use some rest."

* * *

Ratchet parted his eyelids slowly, keeping them squinted in response to the bright light that entered them. He lifted a hand in an attempt to wipe the sleepiness from them. 

The Lombax sat up and fully opened his eyes: he found himself in the _Quantum Leap's _medical bay, sitting on a hospital bed in nothing but his normal cargo pants. Several wires had been hooked up to his chest, and heart and respiratory monitors beeped rhythemically. He yanked off the wires, and the machines gave flatlines.

Ratchet swung his feet off the side of the bed and hopped down onto the green tile floor. He arched his back and stretched, loosening tightened muscles and popping several stiff joints. His mouth felt dry and had a wierd taste in it., and his stomach grumbled in protest of its vacant interior.

The door opened, and an aged male Cazar in a white coat stepped in, looking at a clipbord he held in his hand.

The man looked up at Ratchet, "Ah, you're awake. I'm doctor Nolan Cartell. How are you feeling?" He extended a hand.

Ratchet grasped his hand firmly and shook it, "Pretty good, actually. I havn't been this rested in a week."

"Good, good. Anyway, while you were out, we performed a few routine health tests: CAT scans and similar proceedures; some with rather strange results."

"And by 'strange,' you mean...?" said Ratchet, cocking his head and waiting for Cartell to finish the sentance he started.

No such luck. "Just follow me. I'll explain when we get to the conference room."

* * *

And that's that. Hope you guys like it. I had fun writing the video game scene ;-). R&R as always. 

Later

-_jdog16_


	20. Chapter 20

Hey everyone! A new chapter at last, huh? Heh, I can just hear you guys muttering "Finally!" under your breath ;-). My reason? Eh, mostly laziness, Halo 2, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Metroid Hunters. Also a Halo tournament at the local Rec. Center. That was a lot of fun. Placed 4th out of 11.

Chapter 20

* * *

Ratchet strode down the brightly lit hallway toward the conference room, following the aged doctor. They passed several occupied medical wards, from some of which emanated pained groans. No doubt victims of the attack on Marcadia that arrived from the dropships. 

Around the next corner, a pair of white double doors came into view, the words "Conference Room" imprinted above them. They opened easily and with a slight creek when pushed.

The room beyond had an appointment counter for the receptionist (who was currently on vacation on Pokitaru), a coffee table with a small blue flower vase and several outdated magazines on it, and a line of cusioned chairs on the wall to the right, most of which where occupied by the Q-Force. They looked up as the old Cazar and the Lombax entered the room.

Everyone smiled and voiced their greetings to Ratchet at once, resultingin a loud,jumbled noise. Since their unified hellos and how-are-you's could not be remotelyunderstood, they each stood to greet the lombax seperately.

"Hey, dude. Saw what you did to those robots in the East Wing. Nice work there, bro," said Skidd, giving Ratchet a firm pat on the back.

Qwark, Al, and Helga, along with Skidd, were about to surround Ratchet, chatting noisily and asking for details on the events in the East Wing, when something grasped his arm suddenly and, to his surprise, yet relief, yanked him away from the four large, noisy people. He turned his head to see Sasha's smiling face greet him.

"Heh, thanks for the save there, Sash. It was gettin' a bit hard to breathe," said Ratchet, smiling.

"Oh, you thought it was hard to breathe then?" she said mischieviously, leaned forward, and kissed him. Sasha's comment gave the lombax a little forwarning, so he wasn't taken completely by surprise; after a second, he was kissing her back.

The two broke apart after a few seconds, only to see that Qwark, Al, and Skidd were doing their best to keep from snickering.

"Oh, just get a room already,"commented Qwark with a chuckle.

Sasha and Ratchet ignored him, "It's good to see you up and up and around againt, Ratchet," said Sahsa, "You feel okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine now. Pretty hungry, but that's all."

"**_Ahem_**," someone cleared their throat loudly.

Everyone stopped talking and looked toward the noise's source.

"Thank you. Now if you'll all have a seat, I'll explain why you've been called here," said Dr. Cartell. Everyone sat down on the chairs.

"Alright. Before I say anything, I need to show you something," said the old cazar. He walked over to the receptionist's counter, picked up a folder, and pulled several plastic sheets out of it. He clipped one of the sheets onto a screen and flipped a switch, activating a backlight behind the screen. The sheet was revieled to be the result of a CAT scan, displaying a brainscan consisting of colors ranging from blue to white.

"This is a brainscan from your average lombax; producing varying amounts of alpha waves in different lobes of the brain," continued the doctor.

The Q-Force arched their eyebrows in confusion.

"And this..." Cartell reached into the folder again and pulled out another sheet,attching it to the screen on the wall. The entire surface of thescan area on the new sheetwas pure white.

"... these are theresults of Ratchet's CAT scan. As you can see, his brain produces at least twenty times more alpha waves than the average lombax."

"Okay, I know these are the the 'strange results' you were talking about earlier, but what exactly do they mean?" said Ratchet.

"Well, after the results came in, we checked your medical records for a karyotype," continued the doctor, "Strangely, we could find none, so we made our own. When we did, we found the reason for the over production of brainwaves."

Cartell pulled the karyotype sheet from the folder and handed it to Ratchet.

"Uh... doc, excuse my ignorance, but I have no idea what this thing means."

"-sigh-, how many chromosome pairs are on that karyotype?"

"Um... I count 27. Is that normal?

"No, it's not. A Veldinian lombax normally has 26 pairs of chromosomes. A division abnormality during the meiosis of the zygote at your conception has given you an extra pair. It's amazing really; I don't think I've ever seen such a beneficial DNA mutation. Most of them result in birth defects, cancer, or even death. You're a very fortunate individual."

"Wait, I've had plenty examinations over the past two years. Why did no one ever tell me about this?" asked Ratchet, still confused.

"Well, there were no records of your genetic information in your medical files," explained the old cazar, "so either they were made confidential, or they were simply never taken. If the former is true, since the abnormality didn't have any observable effect, the doctors probably didn't wish to concern you with it, especially with your mind needing to be focused on the battlefield. I really can't see a reason for the latter to be possible unless your doctors neglected protocol."

"Alright, so, all nerd language aside, you're basically saying that I have psychic powers?" said Ratchet

"Oh, I wouldn't go so far as to say 'powers;'your ecsessive brainwave production is purely biological, there's nothing supernatural about it," responded the doctor, "As of now, you have no control over the energy your mind is producing, so it comes in powerful bursts during times ofintense emotion, as demonstrated by the events in the East Wing."

"Would it possible for Ratchet to be able to control this energy, doctor?" piped in Clank.

"Well, I suppose that, with practice, he could train his body to be able to channel and focus it, but, until then, I've been given permission to present him with a prototype device that could help until he does so. Wait here, I'll go get it."

With that, Cartell turned and walked back through the double doors.

"Huh, 'unconrolled bursts during times of strong emotion, eh?" said Qwark, raising his eyebrows, "That would explain the hight rate oftilted picture frames and broken vases whenever Ratchet sees Sasha."

Ratchet grumbled as he felt warmth creep into his cheeks. Everyone else laughed; even Clank couldn't help but chuckle.

Qwark placed a gloved hand on Ratchet's shoulder and shook him a little, "Ah, lighten up you, I'm just kidin' ya."

"Heh, yeah, I know. I'm just a little stressed from all this. I mean, the very people I've been working for and with have been keeping this a secret from me. It's left me a little confused as to who I should trust."

"Well, you can always trust us, Ratchet," said Sasha, taking the lombax's hand and intwining her fingers with his.

Ratchet smiled and was about to say something, but a moderatly loud creak drew everyone's attention to the double doors, through which doctor Cartell had stepped through. He carried a small, flat metal device in his hand.

He walked over to Ratchet and handed him the device, "Here, this should help you."

"What is it?" asked Ratchet.

"It's called a psychic dampener; it's been tuned to absorb the specific frequency of your brainwaves and store them as usable energy, like a battery. Simply attatch it to the inside of your helmet an switch it on. You can use the collected energy to power some of your weapons too."

"Cool. It'll probably come in useful in a tight spot."

Suddenly, loud, hurried footsteps could be heard outside the doors. They grew louder, and a Galactic Ranger burst though the doors.

"Sarge! The Admiral requests that you and the Q-Force get to the bridge ASAP! He says it's urgent!

"What? What is it?" said Ratchet.

"Command just discovered where those meteors came from!"

* * *

And, lo, chapter 20 is complete! As always, read and review! 

Peace out,

_-jdog16_


	21. Chapter 21

Yet another long waitends! New chapter is finally here. School recently ended, I'm gonna get my driver's license once my report card comes in the mail, and I'm going to need a job.

In other words, I'll have real excuses for not updating on a regular basis. :-D

Chapter 21

* * *

Hallway lights whizzed by as Ratchet and The Q-Force sped down the main corridor toward the bridge of the _Quantum Leap_, spurred on by the news they had just recieved. The origin of the meteors' had been discovered, and where they came from, it was only logical that it was there that Dr. Nefarious could be found. The mere thought of finally finishing off the mad scientist caused adrenaline to saturate Ratchet's bloodstream. A slightly audible beep emanated from the dampener attatched to the inside of his helmet as it absorbed the excess energy overflowing from his mind. 

Ammo for later, he thought.

After taking several turns (this time directed by a digital map display), the large, circular doorway to the command brige came into view. The sturdy halves parted at the middle with the sound of whirring gears, widening the gap between them, and allowing Ratchet and the others passage through them when the group came near.

The bridge inside was relatively calm: several crewmen sat at monitors, adjusting engine output and the ship's course. Admiral Vega Shroud sat in the command seat at the center of the room, his head and chest bandaged in guaze to cover the injuries from the laser fire and blunt force he had endured during the previous battle.

He stood at the sound of the bridge door opening, turning his head to look at the entering Q-Force, and strode over to greet them.

The group saluted in unison, straightening their postures formally. "You had news for us, sir?" said Ratchet.

The admiral returned the salute, and motioned for everyone to be at ease. "Yes," he responded, "I assume that the messenger I sent gave you the basic gist of it?"

Clank took a step forward, "Indeed. He told us that you had discovered the origin of the object that landed on Marcadia."

"Bingo," said Vega with a smile, "Through the use of several thousand bolts, we were able to get our hands on one of the recordings of the incident, taken by a reporter who witnissed it.We gave it to our researchers, who calculated the angle of entry the object took and traced it back to the source."

"So, dude, where'd the thing come from?" asked Skidd.

Shroud turned on his heel, "Come here, I'll show you," he said, gesturing for the group to follow.

The Q-Force followed the tall lombax down the steps leading from the command deck, and to a large computer monitor that resided on the right end of the bridge. He pressed a button, and the screen displayed a map of the solar system.

"Now, see this?" the admiral traced a finger along a red line that stuck off of the image of Marcadia, "This is the direction the meteor took on its way to the planet. Now, if we extend the line farther," he pressed a sequence of keys, lengthening the red line until it intercepted another planet, "We've got our source."

Ratchet's eyes widened in realization; the answer was so obvious now. The label under the planet's image read: DAXX.

"Gah, why didn't I think of it before?" he said, putting a hand on his forhead, "Of course he'd be on Daxx; that's where his old laboratory is! Everything he needs to make those machines is right there."

Ratchet turned to face the admiral, "We need to get to Daxx as soon as possible."

Vega smiled knowingly, "We've already plotted a course and should arrive within shuttle range of Daxxwithin the hour."

"Alright, good," replied Ratchet, "But we're gonna need some fighters if we want any hope of getting to Daxx's surface; Nefarious probably has defenses set up, and it's not like the flagship of the Galactic Fleet is hard to notice."

Vega once again answered quickly, "We have fifty Zephyr fighter ships in the docking bay. Our engineers are inspecting them and prepping them for use as we speak."

Now it was Ratchet's turn to smile. From what he'd heard, the Zephyr was the cutting edge of modern fighter technology. The ships were small, with room for only one person, and lightly armored, but made up for it with its manueverability and speed, and a G-reduction unit eased the effects of sharp turns. It was also outfitted with brand new weaponry: a fast lock-on minimissile cluster launcher, dual rapid fire laser cannons, and an autonomous rear-mounted bulb turret that fired a high-powered, sustained laser beam. The wings of the ship were sleekly swept-back, and the fusilage was narrow and compact. Ratchet was eager to try out the new ships himself.

"If you don't mind, I'm gonna go try one of those ships out," said Ratchet enthusiastically.

"Same here," said Sahsa.

Everyone except Vega cast curious looks at the cazarian captain.

"Wait, you know how to fly one of those things?" asked Qwark, pointing a questioning finger.

"Well yeah," said Sasha with a smile, "When I joined the Galactic Fleet, I started as a fighter pilot. Being the Presidents daughter doesn't mean much when it comes to the military; everyone starts at the low ranks and works their way up," she looked at Ratchet, "You were a special case, though."

The lombax remembered when he arrived on Veldin a few years back and the Rangers mistook him for their seargent.

"Alright, let's get down to the hangar then. I don't want to wast anymore time chit-chatting," he said.

* * *

Minutes later, the two had arrived at the Quantum Leap's expansive hangar bay. The Zephyrs were arranged in orderly rows on the room's steel floor. Each was painted dark blue with black wingtips, and had the Galactic Fleet's coat-of-arms emblazoned either side. 

After admiring the sleek exterior of one of the fighters, Ratchet opened the glass canopy and hopped inside. The control panel of the ship was nearly identicle to that of his old ship, except the two-pronged handle he once used was replaced by a single control stick. All buttons and gauges were still in recognizible postions.

He shifted slightly in the seat, getting a feel for the yet unused cusions. He gripped the control stick and tried to imagine exactly what the fighter could do at maximum power, how many enemy ships he could destroy with its weapons.

A voice brought him out of the fantasy.

"Do you plan on actually flying that ship, or just playing make-believe?" Sasha said with a laugh.

Emabrrased, Ratchet took his hand off the flight stick and turned to look at her. She was wearing a pilot's jumpsuit with a patch displaying her rank as captain above the chest pocket. She carried a black flight helmet under her left arm.

"Well?" she said, still looking down at him and grinning.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Ratchet replied, "Go ahead and get in one of the other ships; I'll meet you outside."

"Alright."

With that, the cazar hopped off of the step-ladder that granted entrance to Ratchet's Zephyr, and made her way to her own ship.

Fed up with simple fantasy, the lombax closed the fighter's canopy and ignited its engines, which sprang to life with a low roar. The landing gear retracted, and the ship hung low in the air, supported by ventral thrusters. With the push of a button, a door in the room's east wall opened, creating an opening into space just large enough for the Zephyr to fit through. Easing the throttle forward, Ratchet slowly accelerated the craft toward the opening, picking up speed as he got closer, until the his ship at last cleared the _Quantum Leap_.

Once outside, Ratchet gunned the engine and pulled the control stick toward him with both hands, pitching the nose upward, and performing a loop around the massive starship, wanting to test the flight capabitities. He had expected to leave an imprint on the seat cusion from the g-forces, but he barely felt anything. The G-Diffuser unit beneath the seat was performing beautifully.

Finished with the loop and slightly disoriented from the lack of forceful feedback, the lombaxlet the control stick slide back to a neutral position, straightening the path of his ship, and loosened his grip on the accelerator. The fighter slowed, and Ratchet pulled up alongside the _Quantum Leap_, keeping pace with the larger ship, and waited for Sasha to arrive.

He didn't have to wait long. Thirty seconds later, a blip appeeared on Ratchet's radar, and Sasha's Zephyrexited the Quantum Leap, pulling alongside him.

He flicked on his radio, "Comfortable in there, Sash?" he asked.

"Getting there," came the response, "Can't say I'm totally used to sitting in command of a ship other than the _Pheonix_."

Ratchet chuckled. "Up for afew warm-up manuevers?"

"Yeah, I'll probably need them."

The next thirty minutes were spent performing various loops, twists, U-turns, and rolls in the area surrounding the large starship. Sasha, who's fighter pilotskills were rusty at best, lagged an appreciable distance behind Ratchet, who often allowed time for the cazar to catch up. However, she got used to the ship after a time, and the two once again pulled alongside the Quantum Leap.

Both their radios suddenly crackled to life.

"Vega calling Ratchet and Sasha, over," rang the admiral's voice.

"Yeah, we're here; go ahead," said Ratchet.

"We're about ten minutes away from Daxx. Our long-range scanners have detected a small fleet oflight spacecraft surrounding the planet, and well as larger, stationary signature, the source of which has yet to be idetified." Shroud's voice was clouded slightly by minor static.

"A starship?" asked Sasha.

"That's a possibility," came Vega's voice again,"but don't bet on it. You need to be prepared for whatever it could be."

He cleared his throat, "Anyway, I'll be sending out the rest of our Zephyrs to support you. Ratchet, I'm putting you in command of them. Just make sure that we don't lose too many; they're brand new ships after all!"

"I got it," answered the lombax, grinning, "Ratchet out."

* * *

Down on the planet Daxx, inside a massive mechanical complex, Dr. Nefarious sat lazily on a seat in his command chamber, watching live feed of the hell his creations were unleashing upon Solana. 

Using a remote, he flipped the monitor to footage from Kerwan. The machine had uprooted several skycrapers, which lay shattered on the cracked cround below. The center mass of his creatinon had been turned into a massive suck-cannon, which was currently sending vehicles and soldiers careening into the upper stratosphere.

He sipped at the cup of motor oil held in his left hand,andchanging the channel once again. Now the feed was coming from Marcadia; the machine-turned-tower had taken firm root where the Palace had once stood, and was coating the entire planet in a datk clous, from which rained down thousands of red energy bolts, tranforming anything organic they touched into metal.

Lawrence's voice seemed to come out of nowhere, "Excuse me sir? We have a situation."

Nefarious turned with a start," Wha- Ugh, this better be important, Lawrence. In case you can't see, I'm very busy at the moment!"

"Well, it appearsthat we've been discovered; there is a Galactic Fleet starship heading directly for us."

The doctor looked unimpressed, "Only one?" he said with a cackle, "Feh, it's probalby all that the little squishies can spare with all of the havok that I've cooked up for them."

"What should I do, sir?"

"Eh, just send some fighters to deal with it," he said with a rather disinterested wave of his clawed hand, "I mean, how difficult could destroying a single star ship be?"

* * *

And that's Chapter 21. I hope you guys like it. R&R as always. 

_-jdog16_


	22. Chapter 22

So, yeah. It's been a few months, huh?

To be totally honest, I only recently started work on this chapter. I guess I just needed a break from the writing or something.

I hope you guys won't be disappointed at this chapter, especially since it's bee so long sonce my last update.

Anyway, here's Chapter 22.

* * *

The Galctic Fleet flagship _Quantum Leap_ had just recieved a rather strange, but incredibly fortunate, radio message from the surface of planet Daxx. Apparantly, Doctor Nefarious had not realized that, as he was speaking to Lawrence, he had his elbow resting on the 'Transmit: All Frequencies' button. The result was the equivilant of shouting in a crowded gymnasium. 

"Eh, just send some fighters out to deal with it. I mean, how difficult can destroying a single starship be," the robot supremecist had said.

The words made Vega's blood boil, "Pretty damn difficult if I have anything to do with it," he snarled to himself.

He opened communications with the Zephyr fighters that kept pace alongside the _Quantum Leap._

"This is a message to all fighter pilots," the Admiral said into his headset, "Thanks to a stroke of stupidity on the 'good' doctor's part, we can expect to be hit by a wave of enemy fighters shortly Make sure that your weapons are primed and ready, and your defense systems are online and fully functional."

He heard a radio click on in response, "Any idea how many, sir?" asked Sasha.

"Hold on," responded Vega, setting down the radio headset. He turned around, "Ensign Ferril!"

A small-framed cazar started slightly at the Admirals sudden shout, "Sir?"

"I need a long-distance radar scan in the direction of Daxx, on the double!"

"Aye sir!" With that the, crewman input several key combinations on the console in front of him. Vega walked over to see what the radar had picked up. The results of the sweep made him scowl.

The tall lombax strided back over to his station, placing the radio headset over his ears once he reached it.

He clicked the radio on, "Our sensors have detected a fleet of over three hundred and fifty small signatures en route to our current position."

The Admiral's words were followed by an expectant silence, as if the others expected him to say more. But Vega said nothing more; no words of ecouragement, no assurances of victory.

After realinzing that that was it, Ratchet decided to break the silence, his voice set like stone, "Alright, thanks sir. We'll do what he can. Ratchet out." He felt the fur on his palms grow moist from sweat as he switched off his comm-link. He was an experienced pilot, and had fought his fair share if ship battles in his Megacorp commando days, but the odds for the upcoming conflict seemed remote at best, even for his normally gung-ho attitude.

The orange lombax mentally slapped himself, "What am I doing?" he thought, "I can't afford to think like that; not now, not ever." Ratchet shook his head, casting off any doubts or fears that still remained. He gripped his Zephyr's flight stick tightly, a renewed sense of determination flowing through his veins.

One of the rangers spoke nervously through the comm-link, "So, uh, Sarge... wh-what are your orders?"

Ratchet thought for a moment, then grinned beneath his helmet, "Just follow me," he said, "I think I have a strategy that's just insane enough to work."

* * *

"Ratchet, are you sure about that?" asked Sasha after hearing the lombax's explanation, "That seems more like a plan that Captain Qwark would come up with, minus the gloating and self-glorification." 

"Look, I know it sounds nuts," Ratchet replied, "But, with the number of fighters that are heading towards us, our options are pretty limited."

A Ranger suddenly interrupted their conversation, speaking quickly, "Sir! Bogeys on the close range radar! They'll be all over us within sixty seconds!"

Ratchet activated his ship's holographic heads-up display, "Crap, I was hoping for more time. Ah well, I guess we're gonna have to go ahead with it! Form up!"

The fifty fighter ships broke from the group, and formed five triangular formations, each one consisting of ten fighters. All the pilots flicked on their holographic canopy displays, and activated their rear-mounted auto turrets. The five formations lined up, and accelerated in the direction of Daxx. Countless small black points appeared in silouette against the planet.

"Thirty seconds, sir," said one Ranger nervously.

"Get ready everyone," Ratchet said, flipping the cover off of a rectangular red button.

The silouettes grew larger and more detailed, their angular features glinting in the starlight.

"Ten seconds."

"Now!" Ratchet yelled into the comm-link, hitting the button he'd uncovered.

The result was an instantaniuos and incredible boost of speed. The Zephyr's fuel gauge dropped drastically as propellant was dumped directly into the engine exhaust line. The other fighters had done the same and struggled to keep their formation as they shot toward the enemy group.

The fighters from Daxx were taken by total surprise; several fired their lasers, but the Zephyrs were moving much too quickly to accurately target, and the few shots that did connect simply glanced off of their shielding.

The Zephyrs then simply plowed through the enemy fighters, which darted about in order to avoid being struck by the speeding ships. As Ratchet's small fleet sped through the cloud of hostiles, their auto turrets went to work, blasting at any bogeys that got to close, and taking several of them out in bright flashes of light as their fuel supplies violently ignited.

"Back!" Ratchet barked over the radio, pulling back on the flight stick and performing a tight U-turn. The rest of the Zephyrs followed suit, breaking formation as they did. They wer now in perfect position on the enemy's six.

The opportunity didn't go to waste; Ratchet's fleet opened fire, unleashing volleys of cluster missiles and a storm of laser bolts. The projectiles tore into Nefarious' ships, sending many of them careening random directions before their fuel tanks detonated. Others simply exploded, throwing bits of metal shrapnel everywhere.

"Whoa, check out the light show!" a Ranger said enthusiastically.

"Don't get too cocky yet, trooper," Sasha responded, "We still have a lot of work to do here, and we can't afford to get unfocused."

"She's right," said Ratchet, "We took out a pretty big chunk of them, but we aren't done yet." As if to drive the point home, the remaining bogeys had turned around by now and forced several of the Zephyrs to dodge their laser fire.

Ratchet swerved as a stream of green lasers sizzled by, "Alright, everyone prepare to engage! Lets decimate these guys, then take the fight to Nefarious, this time for the last time!"

A unanimous cheer went up among the Zephyr pilots.

And then the group split up, each pilot dodging and weaving through the hail of lasers and missiles that set the space around them ablaze with light.

Ratchet had turned sharply to the left, dodging enemy laser fire as he did, and manuevered behind a group of bogeys that was chasing one of his pilots. Multiple green locking symbols apeared on his ships canopy as his system acquired the targets. The symbols turned bright red, a tone sounded, and Ratchet pushed the fire button. A dozen mini-missiles screamed out of their launchers, streaking toward their targets. The armaments were each two feet long, were about a molecule thick at their very tips, and made of an extremely hard carbonox alloy. This allowed them to penetrate even thick armor and detonate inside whatever they hit.

The missiles functioned perfectly; ten enemy fighters spun out of control as the cylindrical explosivs lodged themselves in their targets, then erupted into fireballs as the weaponry detonated, spewing white-hot bits of metal in all directions.

The flaring explosions made Ratchet crack a smile, which quickly dissappeared as his vessel shook violently. On the dash, his ship's shield meter glowed bright orange as enemy lasers clawed at his defenses, determined to punch through the protective field and burn away the metal underneath.

The lombax rolled his Zephyr to the left; green laser bolts flitted by beside him. The fighter behind him adjusted it's flight path and fired again, forcing Ratchet to bob and weave to avoid the searing beams of light flying at him.

"Alright, that's enough," Ratchet grunted to himself as he hit the forward thrusters, slowing his ship to a crawl, and allowing the persuing enemy to accelerate by him. As soon as it did, Ratchet targeted the ship, and pulled a trigger, sending a shower of blue energy bolts streaking forward. Several of them sliced through the ship's hull, penetrating the engine and igniting the fuel line, which burst into flame and destroyed the craft.

Garbled radio signals suddenly flooded the compartment of Ratchet's Zyphyr. He adjusted his radio frequency settings, and isolated a signal.

Sasha's voice crackled over the comm, "Ratchet, the situation here's getting out of control! We've lost at least ten of our pilots, and the enemy just seems to be getting more and more coor-"

There was a loud thud over the radio, and a yelp of pain.

"Sasha! What happened?" yelled Ratchet, failing miserably at an effort to sound professional.

The cazar gritted her teeth, her head throbbing after taking a hit from an enemy fighter, "Yeah, I am, but my ship's shields are almost gone."

She performed several barrel rolls to dodge oncoming laser fire, "We need a new plan here, Ratchet! There are just too many of them for us to handle here!"

Ratchet knew she was right.

After a shor pause, the lombax responded, "We're going to have to stop these guys at their source," he pressed the 'All Frequencies' button, "All pilots, follow my coordinates to planed Daxx."

* * *

For the people who can't tell, this story is nearing its end, 2 more chapters at max.


	23. Chapter 23

Yes, I yet live! I'm sure that all two of you guys actually reading this are very excited!

So, I got a Wii, twilight Princess, and Rainbow 6: Vegas in the interim between chapters. Good stuff, all of it.

Anyway...

Chapter 23

* * *

Ratchet's Zehpyr rattled violently, it's shield gauge dropping to just below twenty-five percent. 

"Damn!" he swore, banking and rolling in a zigzag pattern, attempting to evade the veritable cloud of blazing emerald laser bolts flitting by. His ship's turret responded automatically, spatting out bursts of cobalt energy blasts.

The rest of the fighters in his tiny fleet followed suit, dodging fire from the persuing enemy ships as they made their way towards the surface of Daxx. Ratchet led the way, plotting a course for Dr. Nefarious' laboratory. Directly engaging the mad scientist's forces would only result in their deaths; the one chance for victory resided in defeating Nefarious himself.

Ratchet checked his radar. Almost one hundred ships were following the Zephyrs; a mere portion of the origional force, but still too much for the lombax's fleet to destroy, especially with their shielding as low as it was.

"We'll be entering Daxx's atmosphere in about ten seconds. Brace yourselves!" informed Sasha over the comm-link.

Ratchet checked his restraints and tightened his grip on the flight stick.

Despite the preparations, the force of the impact with the outer atmosphere hit like a ton of carbonox blocks, violently shaking the Galactic Fleet fighters as the friction threatened to rend them into tiny metal fragments. Fiery globes surrounded the Zephyrs as the air ionized and heated to thousands of degrees from the speed of their entry.

Ratchet struggled to maintain control over his ship, fighting both the intense turbulance that rattled his bones and the cloud of red hot gases that obsured his vision. He checked his radar again; to his surprise, most of the fighters that persued the lombax's fleet were gone.

_"They must have thought us more trouble than we're worth,"_ thought Ratchet, _"Either that, or they just want to focus on attacking the _Quantum Leap_."_

Ratchet felt a pang of guilt at the thought, feeling as though he'd abandoned Vega, Clank, and all the others defending the Galctic Fleet's flagship. He quickly shook it off; he needed to focus on reaching Nefarious' stronghold and disposing of the mad robot supremacist.

The fireballs surrounding the Zephyrs flickered and died as they slowed their descent into Daxx's atmosphere. Droplets of condensed water formed on the ships' canopies as the humidity rose, only to be swept away by the speed of the Zephyrs entry. The small fleet broke the cloud layer, and details of the ground became discernable; an archapelago of small islands and rocky reefs in a vast ocean came into view. An enourmous complex was built on the largest island, covered with high spires and radio antenna.

Ratchet opened the comm link with the rest of his Zephyrs, "Alright everyone, set your ships' autopilot in a holding pattern; we're gonna be bailing out to avoid the heavy anti-aircraft guns." He pressed several buttons on hs ship's dashboard, "I've sent you all the coordinates for the drop zones. Once we're on the ground, we'll locate a way inside the laboratory." Green lights winked on in his holographic display, indicating that the other pilots understood.

The lombax pressed more buttons on the dashboard, programming his ship to maintain a wide eliptical pattern high above Nefarious' lab complex, as well as slowing it down. Several seconds and a flip of a switch later, the canopy of the Zephyr rose up, the air roaring around Ratchet with the force a typhoon.

After checking his equipment one last time, the lombax drew a deep breath and exhaled sharply. Then, without looking, he pressed his thumb against a glowing yellow button.

Almost instanly, a mechanism in the Zephyr's seat propelled Ratchet's body into the sky like a cannon, clearing him of the small fighter in a fraction of a second, which soon disappeared into the distant clouds.

Seconds later, Ratchet felt the heavy hand if gravity take hold and pull him down towards the planet. He adjusted his body into a face-down spread-eagle position as he began to accelerate towards the ground, opening his palms and shifting his weight to maintain stability during the freefall. The sound of rushing air intensified, nearly deafening.

As the surface of Daxx grew closer, Ratchet scanned his drop zone; a small rocky island on the outskirts of Nefarious' complex. After adjusting his descent path accordingly, he searched around his sides for the ten pilots that were headed to the same island. He spotted five of them; one met the lombax's gaze and gave him a thumbs up. Ratchet returned the gesture.

Suddenly, through the sound of the wind whipping through his ears, Ratchet thought he heard something; a high pitched whining noise.

He immediately recognized the noise. He activated his helmet's comm-link.

"Heads up everyone!" Ratchet barked through the radio, "Nefarious knows we're here, and we're gonna be up to our ears in mortar rounds pretty soon. Once you reach your landing zone, take up defensive positions; we'll have to fend off a few enemy patrols before we can advance to the laboratory. Watch your backs and keep your heads down. Ratchet out."

The lombax cut off his radio, looking toward the complex. Sure enough, the alarm had signaled the lab's defense systems to come online; Ratchet and his troops were now staring down into the barrels of at least a dozen mortar launchers.

_"Great," _the lombax thought.

* * *

In the distance, Sasha's ears picked up what sounded like a cannon shot, followed my numerous more. Looking down, she could see several obejects quickly racing up to meet her and the Rangers around her. She felt her muscles tense in anticipation. 

"Here they come!" someone shouted, voice wavering.

At the last moment, the cazar angled her arms and jerked her body to the right, allowing the first mortar round to pass by harmlessly. The roar of its exhaust reverberated through Sasha's skull, momentarily negating the sound of the rushing air.

Suddenly, a blast of hot wind and deafening sound ripped through the air, catapulting the cazar end-over-end through the sky. The roar of the wind disappeared, replaced instead with a high-pitched whine brought on by the pressure wave of the explosion. Sasha struggled to stabilize and regain her bearings; she was tumbling helplessly through the air, unable to control her descent.

Another explosion erupted above her, farther away this time; a Ranger screamed as the white-hot shrapnel from the detonating shell tore through his chassis, showering sparks and bits of metal in all directions. Voices shouted indistinctly.

Through the chaos of the exploding mortars, Sasha was finally able to regain control over her descent, and looked down. Her eyes widened at the sight; apparantly, she'd lost track of time when the mortar exploded near her. The ground was much closer now than she'd imagined, and was closing in quickly, only several hundred meters away. Reflexively, she jerked her head back and threw her legs forward, putting her perpendicular to the ground. As soon as she was upright, she activated her charge boots, hoping that the jets of exhaust would slow her down in time.

The boots worked, though just barely, and Sasha hit the dirt hard, knocking her to her knees. Numerous Rangers landed around her, yelling indistinctly.

Before the cazar could even look up, crimson laser bolts barreled toward the landing zone, zipping by with an audible hum and scorching blackened pits into the stones of the tiny island.

She instinctively scrambled for cover behind a boulder, small plumes of molten rock erupting everywhere. Quickly, she pressed a button on a small, bracer-like device on her right forearm, and an N90 Hurricane materialized in her hands, teleported from the weapon's bay of the _Quantum Leap._

Without looking, Sasha angled the weapon out from behing her cover and squeezed the trigger, unleashing a storm of burning plasma bolts upon the attacking security droids, which dove and dodged to avoid them. Few suffered any damage, thanks to the innacuracy of the barrage, but the cazar had given her group some breathing room, and they immediately took advantage of it, standing from their cover and loosing laser bolts from their arm-cannons.

Explosions and electrical crackling emanated from the ranks of the enemy, signaling the destruction of numerous drones. The rest soon found cover behind boulders and fired blindly around them.

Thinking quickly, Sasha pressed another button of the device, and the N90 vanished, a Nitro Eruptor appearing in its place. She lifted the weapon, angled it up, and pulled the trigger, releasing it's explosive payload with a muffled _thump_. The grenade flew in a tall parabola arking over the battlefield, and quickly plummeted to the earth, impacting just behind a group of three enemies. The explosion ripped through the robots, showering ragged pieces of their broken bodies and bits of shattered stone everywhere. Others nearby fell to the ground, stunned by the shockwave.

"Move up! Don't let them recover!" the cazar shouted, breaking cover after equipping a Plasma Coil. The Rangers dutifully obeyed, jumping out from behind singed boulders and out of shallow ditches. The group raced forward, firing their weapons from the hip and finishing off the last of the defense drones.

A quick scan of the charred battlezone revealed no remaining hostiles. The walkway linking the landing zone to the main island compound was clear. Sasha immediately opened a comm-link with Ratchet.

"Ratchet, it's Sasha. Our landing zone is secure. How's it going on your end?"

* * *

An explosion rocked the ground, forcing Ratchet to duck and showering him with small stones. 

"Oh, nothin' we can't handle," he told Sasha after the ringing in his ears ceased, "Go to the compound's main entrance and hold position there. We'll link up with you when we finish up here."

"Got it," replied the cazar, "Just make sure you get here in one piece, hotshot," she added before closing the comm-link.

Crouching behind a boulder, Ratchet used his supply bracer to make a Bouncer materialize in his gloved hands. Him and his small division of Rangers were pinned down by a massive guard robot. The automaton was at least twenty feet tall, made of bright crimson metal, with two repeating plasma cannons mounted on its arms. It's eyes glowed green as plasma bolts barreled from its weapons, slowly eroding away the boulders that Ratchet and his men used for cover.

Suddenly, the barrage of superheated gas ceased, and the huge robot paused to put a new energy cell into it's weapons. Instantly, Ratchet seized the opportunity, leaping out from behind cover and pullung the Bouncer's trigger.

The weapon's massive round seemed to clear the barrel in slow motion, tumbling through the air until it reached its target. Upon doing so, the shell burst open with a loud explosion, releasing a dozen bouncing bomblets. The small explosives remained idle for a fraction of a second, then locked on to the giant machine, flinging themselves at it and bursting into mini firestorms.

The robot shuddered under the force of all the explosions, holes appearing in its metal casing and internal circuits and wires melting from the heat. Suddenly, its legs gave out, the metal bending and snapping off at the knee with a sound similar to a gunshot, sending the hostile crashing to the ground.

Ratchet held his breath, prepared to fire again if necissary. But nothing happened; the huge machine lay unmoving on the rocky ground.

"Alright," he said, "Let's get going. Sasha and the others should be waiting for us at the lab's entrance."

He and the Rangers started across the walkway toward the compound, quick and determined.

_"Almost there,"_ thought the lombax, beginning to feel the effects of fatigue take hold,_ "almost there."

* * *

And so the chapter ends. Not much more left._

Don't forget to review!


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